{"text":[[{"start":8.1,"text":"A Japanese utility has withdrawn applications to restart a nuclear power plant after an independent committee found that pressure from senior management led workers to manipulate earthquake data submitted to the regulator."}],[{"start":20.6,"text":"Chubu Electric Power said on Monday it would scrap regulatory reviews to reopen two reactors at its Hamaoka plant, pausing an effort that has been ongoing for more than a decade."}],[{"start":31.28,"text":"The chief executive and chair also resigned after an independent committee found that workers had deliberately manipulated data to pass regulatory reviews."}],[{"start":40.08,"text":"The decision marks a significant setback in Japan’s pivot back to nuclear power 15 years after the Fukushima disaster."}],[{"start":47.24,"text":"Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi views the restart as critical to bringing down energy costs for residents and providing competitive power for Japan’s AI data centres and traditional manufacturing industries, but the move has been plagued with setbacks."}],[{"start":61.48,"text":"“Given the serious doubts that have arisen regarding the reliability of the application documents and the company’s subsequent handling of matters in the review process, it would not be appropriate to maintain the existing applications,” said Chubu Electric."}],[{"start":75.96,"text":"The independent review found Japan’s third-largest utility committed “what could be called an act of concealment” by trying to manufacture data sets that justified the choice of seismic waves used in a safety review to reopen the Hamaoka nuclear power station."}],[{"start":90.8,"text":"The data sets were estimates of how strongly the site would shake during a range of earthquake scenarios, which regulators used to determine whether a plant’s design could withstand them in quake-prone Japan."}],[{"start":102.12,"text":"The committee identified an “extremely unusual” culture of Chubu Electric engineers operating “under their own logic” and “their own sense of justice” that sidelined compliance with rules governing nuclear safety."}],[{"start":113.84,"text":"“Those involved appeared not to recognise that there was anything problematic about what they had done,” the report said."}],[{"start":120.32,"text":"A whistleblower at the company raised the alarm on data manipulation in 2021, sending an email from three years earlier that showed weaker seismic waves were being selected."}],[{"start":130.24,"text":"Chubu Electric put the department accused of misconduct in charge of a fact-finding investigation, and the whistleblower hotline eventually responded that no compliance violations had been found."}],[{"start":140.6,"text":"The independent committee, which was formed after the data manipulation became known in January, said pressure from senior management was one of the factors that led to the misconduct, but it did not find evidence of direct orders from top executives to reverse-engineer the data for the regulator."}],[{"start":159.16,"text":"Japan’s nuclear industry was rocked by reactor meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi in 2011, leading to the shutdown of the nation’s fleet of 54 reactors. The incident exposed what critics called a cosy “nuclear village” of utilities, politicians and regulators that prevented a proper safety regime and enabled complacency over the risks."}],[{"start":181.54,"text":"The country has restarted 15 reactors since the disaster, and the government is aiming to lift nuclear’s share of power generation from 8.5 per cent to about 20 per cent by 2040. That is down from about 30 per cent pre-Fukushima."}],[{"start":197.16,"text":"The two reactors at Chubu Electric’s Hamaoka had been one of the big hopes for Japan to extend the revival, but their scheduled restart is likely to be pushed back by at least three years to 2032 and 2035 respectively, according to analysts’ estimates."}],[{"start":218.8,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1789375612_7018.mp3"}