Japan: NRA rule on standards for the location, structure and equipment of commercial power reactors (NRA Rule No. 5 of 2013)

Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority rule on the location, structure and equipment of commercial power reactors requires seismically important facilities to be built on ground where no displacement is likely and that can support them, and sets earthquake and tsunami protection standards. It applies to commercial power reactors only and approves no site.

Category: Laws, rules and executive directives
Status: In effect
Instrument: final rule · 実用発電用原子炉及びその附属施設の位置、構造及び設備の基準に関する規則 (平成二十五年原子力規制委員会規則第五号), promulgated 28 June 2013, in force 8 July 2013; current text as last amended by NRA Rule No. 7 of 2026 (in force 11 September 2026)
Issued by: Nuclear Regulation Authority (原子力規制委員会)
Jurisdiction: Japan
Affects: Siting
In effect from: 8 Jul 2013 · actual · day
Expiry or completion: None recorded
Operative text: e-Gov law database: 実用発電用原子炉及びその附属施設の位置、構造及び設備の基準に関する規則 (NRA Rule No. 5 of 2013) (e-Gov consolidated text, current revision of 11 September 2026)
Record reviewed · next review: 2026-10-18 · 2027-04-18 (dates our review of this record; not a statement of the measure's present legal effect)

Legal and geographic scope

Applies to commercial power reactors and their attached facilities (Article 1). Article 3 requires design-basis facilities to sit on ground that can sufficiently support them under the applicable seismic forces, and requires seismically important facilities to sit on ground where deformation would not impair their safety functions and where no ground displacement is likely to occur. Article 4 requires resistance to seismic forces, including the design-basis ground motion for seismically important facilities and slope failure caused by earthquakes, and Article 5 requires that design-basis facilities not lose safety functions from the design-basis tsunami. These are binding location and design standards, not a site approval.

Not approved or still pending

Does not cover test and research reactors such as the HTTR, which have a separate NRA rule that was not reviewed. NRA review guides on faults, ground motion and siting were not reviewed. The rule approves no site.

Dated lifecycle

28 Jun 2013 · actual · day · Issued — Promulgation date. (e-Gov law database: 実用発電用原子炉及びその附属施設の位置、構造及び設備の基準に関する規則 (NRA Rule No. 5 of 2013))
8 Jul 2013 · actual · day · Took effect — Supplementary provision 1. (e-Gov law database: 実用発電用原子炉及びその附属施設の位置、構造及び設備の基準に関する規則 (NRA Rule No. 5 of 2013))
11 Sep 2026 · actual · day · Amended — NRA Rule No. 7 of 2026, enforced the same day; its content was not reviewed. (e-Gov law database: revision history of NRA Rule No. 5 of 2013)

Definitions in this instrument

耐震重要施設 (seismically important facilities) (Article 3(1)): Design-basis facilities whose loss of safety function from an earthquake would have a particularly large radiological effect on the public.
Legal definition used by this instrument only; SMRMap's inclusion rule for SMRs is separate and unchanged.

Related instruments

Japan: Act on the Regulation of Nuclear Source Material, Nuclear Fuel Material and Reactors (Act No. 166 of 1957) (implements)

Projects or designs named by the source

None. Location in this jurisdiction does not make a project eligible for, or approved under, this measure.

Sources

e-Gov law database: 実用発電用原子炉及びその附属施設の位置、構造及び設備の基準に関する規則 (NRA Rule No. 5 of 2013) (regulator_primary, accessed 2026-10-18)
e-Gov law database: revision history of NRA Rule No. 5 of 2013 (government_primary, accessed 2026-10-18)