The president of a Japanese nuclear plant operator will step down following a quake data-tampering scandal, local media reported on Monday (September 14, 2026), with the firm expected to abandon plans to restart two reactors.

Japan is moving to revive nuclear power 15 years after an enormous earthquake and tsunami sent reactors at the Fukushima atomic plant into meltdown in 2011.

Chubu Electric Power’s Hamaoka nuclear plant — located in an area of central Japan at risk of a potential “megaquake” — has been undergoing regulatory safety checks, with the aim of restarting two reactors.

But in January, the operator said that it had submitted data to regulators that underestimated earthquake risks.

Public broadcaster NHK and other local media said that president Kingo Hayashi and chairman Satoru Katsuno will step down.

The company is reportedly holding a press conference later in the day. The firm was not immediately available for comment.

A 250-page report by an independent panel, released on Monday (September 14, 2026), said the management’s “reprimand” over delays in the restart review had created pressure on staff, and was “one of the factors contributing to the misconduct”.

The Nikkei business daily reported that the company will withdraw its application for the review process.

Japan pulled the plug on nuclear power in the wake of the meltdown at the Fukushima atomic plant.

However, the resource-poor nation now wants to revive atomic energy to reduce its heavy dependence on fossil fuels, achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and meet growing energy needs from artificial intelligence.

The world’s biggest nuclear plant, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, restarted operations earlier this year.

The estimate of maximum seismic ground motion is important for the earthquake-resistant design of nuclear plants.

In September 2023 the Nuclear Regulation Authority approved Chubu’s estimate of 1,200 gal, a unit of acceleration used to measure the intensity of quakes.

But in February last year the NRA received information about possible data fraud from a whistleblower.

The NRA suspended its safety review process for the Hamaoka plant in late December.

The plant is located in Omaezaki, Shizuoka prefecture, near a seismic fault line where a massive Pacific earthquake is expected to occur in the coming years or decades.

In 2024, the Japan Meteorological Agency issued its first special advisory for a possible “megaquake” in the area, known as the Nankai Trough, before lifting it a week later.

Japan and the ‌United States are working to include a nuclear power project ​in the second round of deals under Japan’s $550-billion investment package, two ⁠people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Wednesday (March 4, 2026).

The nuclear power project, which the sources say will involve Westinghouse, is designed to strengthen both countries’ energy supply chains ‌as war in West Asia renews concerns about energy security.

Several deals have been under discussion, to be potentially announced when ‌Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi meets U.S. President Donald Trump in ‌Washington ⁠on March 19, said the sources, who declined to be ⁠identified as the matter was private.

Tokyo is scrambling to build up deals under the investment commitments it made as part of a U.S. tariff agreement. It has already announced three projects ​valued at $36 billion, including a natural ‌gas power plant in Ohio.

A project to construct a copper smelting and refining facility is also being considered, the sources said. Aiming to deepen the talks, Japan’s Trade Minister Ryosei Akazawa plans to visit the ‌U.S. from Thursday (March 5, 2026) to meet U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, two ​separate sources close to the matter said on Wednesday (March 4, 2026).

Westinghouse was one of about 20 companies mentioned in a joint fact sheet ⁠the two governments issued in October as having expressed interest in projects to be financed by Tokyo.

The U.S. company, owned by Cameco and Brookfield , ‌is looking at building pressurised water reactors and small modular reactors totalling up to $100 billion, according to the fact sheet.

Japanese firms such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Toshiba and IHI could be potentially involved, it said. Last year, the U.S. government inked a partnership worth at least $80 billion with Westinghouse to build nuclear reactors, underlining Mr. Trump’s agenda to increase domestic energy output as the ‌expansion of artificial intelligence data centres boosts demand.

The fact sheet also said Falcon Copper ​was considering building a $2 billion copper smelting and refining facility and is exploring involvement from Japanese suppliers and off-takers.

An official at ⁠Japan’s industry ministry said the government did not know how the negotiations would ⁠turn out. Mitsubishi Heavy said nothing had been decided and that it would assess any equipment supply on a case-by-case basis. Toshiba ‌declined to comment.

IHI said it would review details if concrete talks emerged. Westinghouse and Falcon Copper could not be reached for comment outside their ​business hours.