Japan’s Nuclear Watchdog Shows Its Bark Has Some Bite: Energy

Japan’s nuclear regulator, set up to replace a predecessor that ignored warnings before the atomic disaster in Fukushima, looks set to deliver a ruling that will permanently shut at least one nuclear plant and maybe more.

An advisory board appointed by the Nuclear Regulation Authority said yesterday that an earthquake fault running under the country’s oldest reactor at Japan Atomic Power Co.’s Tsuruga plant is active. Laws in Japan, which experiences about 10 percent of the world’s earthquakes, prohibit building reactors on active faults.