That ruling means operator Kansai Electric Power can keep the two units online until September, when they will undergo scheduled safety checks and be re-examined under the new rules, the authority said. "I expect the operator will continue improving the safety of the plant towards meeting the new standards," said the nuclear authority's head Shunichi Tanaka. The body will also continue examining if there are any active tectonic faults underneath the plant. The stricter new standards are part of a government effort to convince a sceptical populace that they are taking safety issues seriously in post-Fukushima Japan. Leading figures in a vocal anti-atomic movement say the nuclear industry had too cozy a relationship with its regulators in the decades leading up to the tsunami-sparked disaster in March 2011.