January 16, 2026

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

It has come to light that Chubu Electric Power Company, seeking regulatory approval for the resumption of operations at its Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant (Shizuoka Prefecture), used falsified data regarding the maximum potential amount of shaking from an earthquake (the standard seismic motion). The utility’s act totally undermines the premises of the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA)’s safety screening.

The NRA on January 14 decided to suspend the screening of the Hamaoka plant and to conduct an on-site investigation at the power company.

In the screening which began in 2014, Chubu Electric had explained to the NRA that it selected an earthquake wave closest to the average wave calculated under different conditions to form the Hamaoka NPP’s standard seismic motion. However, in reality, the utility cherry-picked earthquake wave data with the motive of passing through the 12-year screening for an early restart of the Hamaoka plant. The utility’s misconduct dates back to at least 2018. In other words, it is systematic fraud. Chubu Electric should admit to its responsibility for the data falsification and tell the whole story regarding this act. In addition, it should give up on bringing the Hamaoka NPP back online.

Chubu Electric’s data fraud was revealed in February 2025 with a whistleblower’s report to the NRA. It is serious that the nuclear watchdog failed to detect the fraud, which may raise a doubt on the NRA’s safety approval.

Since the NRA’s safety screening lost the public trust, the government should withdraw its policy to go forward with the maximum utilization of nuclear power through the restart of idled facilities and the construction of new ones.