THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
December 24, 2025 at 16:07 JST
The Shika Nuclear Power Station in Shika, Ishikawa Prefecture (Tatsuya Shimada)
Hokuriku Electric Power Co. is challenging a government report suggesting that its Shika nuclear power plant in Ishikawa Prefecture may sit atop an active fault line as it attempts to restart the long-idled plant.
The Geospatial Information Authority of Japan published the finding on Dec. 23 in a map showing a presumed fault line running north to south beneath the facility on the country’s northern coast.
While the GSI concluded from aerial photographs and on-site surveys that it is reasonable to classify the formation as such, it labeled it a “presumed active fault” due to a lack of geological data confirming its existence.
Hokuriku Electric immediately rejected the assessment, saying its own geological investigations have confirmed that no active faults exist within the plant premises.
The presumed fault's location has added significance because of the plant's layout. According to the utilities company, a key intake tunnel used to cool critical equipment sits directly above the area identified by the GSI.
Under Japan’s nuclear safety standards that were strengthened after the 2011 Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant disaster, essential facilities cannot be built atop active faults.
The plant could be potentially decommissioned if the geological feature is officially classified as one.
The two reactors at the Shika plant have remained offline since 2011, and Hokuriku Electric is seeking approval to bring them back online under the new safety standards.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority had previously examined the possibility of an active fault beneath another part of the plant.
Although NRA experts initially raised concerns, Hokuriku Electric’s geological data led the regulator in 2023 to accept the company’s conclusion that no active fault existed under that specific facility.
As the newly identified presumed fault is in a different area of the site, the NRA is once again scrutinizing the plant's safety.
(This article was written by Yusuke Ogawa and Tomoyuki Suzuki.)
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