TOKYO—The operator of a controversial nuclear plant refused over the weekend to follow the government's demand for an immediate shutdown, saying the company's board needed more time to consider the matter.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan held a dramatic Friday evening news conference demanding that Chubu Electric Power Co. close its Hamoaka nuclear plant—located in a coastal area seen as vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis—until it could bolster its safety procedures.
The company said its board met Saturday to consider the matter, but adjourned without making a decision, and, as of Sunday, had yet to schedule another meeting.
"The board discussed a broad range of issues, ranging from the ability to meet energy demand this summer with alternative methods [and] the impact on the company's financials, to tsunami preparations at the nuclear plant," the company said in a statement. "However, due to the potential widespread impact on our customers and shareholders, we have decided to continue our discussions at a later time."
The company's chairman headed to Qatar over the weekend to see whether it might secure additional liquefied natural gas to make up the shortfall if it were to accept Mr. Kan's demand.
If Chubu Electric were to suspend operations at Hamaoka—its only nuclear plant—the company has said it would face additional fuel costs of 700 million yen a day, or nearly $9 million. According to local media reports, that could force the company to lose money this year.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Kan, responding to Chubu's statement, repeated the request for a swift shutdown, stressing the demand has come from the very top and remains unchanged.
"I have requested a suspension of operations at all reactors at Hamaoka for the safety and sense of security of the Japanese people," Mr. Kan said late Friday, citing the plant's location near a fault line where experts predict a major quake at some point in the next 30 years.
But because the plant has cleared official government safety standards, Mr. Kan apparently doesn't have the authority to order a shutdown, but can only request the company consider doing so.
The nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi—the world's worst such crisis in the quarter century since Chernobyl—has prompted the Japanese government to adopt more precautionary policies toward nuclear plants.
The accident at Fukushima Daiichi was triggered by the massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which knocked out power at the plant, and led to a failure of its cooling system and a widespread release of radiation.
Nuclear-agency official Hidehiko Nishiyama said at a news briefing Saturday that the Hamaoka plant has met official safety standards, and that officials had submitted a report with that conclusion to Mr. Kan before he issued his shutdown demand. "The prime minister is likely to have made the decision based on the unprecedented scale of the northeast earthquake and tsunami, and the potential threat to Hamaoka," he said.
Mr. Kan and aides said Sunday that Hamaoka was the only nuclear power complex where they were seeking a quick shutdown because, they said, the estimated risks of a major quake were far lower near other facilities around the country.
While government and industry officials jousted over Hamaoka, the operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi plant reported incremental progress over the weekend in the long battle to bring the crippled reactors there under control. A spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco, said newly installed ventilators at Fukushima Daiichi's No. 1 reactor building have brought radiation levels down to a point where Tepco is "comfortable" with sending workers to open the double-entry doors to survey the internal condition.
Radiation leakage has been one concern until now about opening the double-entry doors, which block external and internal access to the reactor building. "We expect only a small amount of radiation leakage in the immediate surrounding area and it shouldn't pose a threat," said a Tepco spokesman.
The company said Sunday night that it had received clearance from regulators to open the doors, and that workers would be able to enter the reactor building and survey the internal condition by Monday morning.
The aim is have workers enter eventually to install permanent cooling equipment crucial to bringing the overheating in the reactors to a safe, so-called cold shutdown to end the nuclear crisis.
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