Japan watchdog OKs new safety rules to extend reactor life

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese nuclear regulators have approved contentious safety evaluation changes and draft legislation to allow aging reactors to operate longer. The Nuclear Regulation Authority, responding to a new government policy to scrap the current 60-year operating limit for reactors, adopted a new system in which additional operating extensions can granted every 10 years after 30 years of service. No maximum limit is specified. It’s a major change from the current 40-year operating limit with a possible one-time extension of up to 20 years, a rule that was introduced as part of stricter safety standards adopted after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. One of the authority’s five members opposed the changes.