Japan's nuclear regulator has decided to again suspend screening on whether to put the Tsuruga nuclear power plant's No. 2 reactor back online, due to errors in documents submitted by the operator.

The plant in Fukui Prefecture, central Japan, is operated by the Japan Atomic Power Company.

The decision by the Nuclear Regulation Authority came at its meeting on Wednesday. The reactor's screening will be suspended only about four months after it was resumed last December, as new errors were found in the operator's application documents.

The authority has been assessing whether the reactor meets rules on going back online that were introduced after the 2011 Fukushima accident.

At issue has been how to assess a fault beneath the reactor. Some say the fault could move if triggered by possible movement of a nearby active fault, while the operator says it will not.

The screening procedures had been suspended for about two years until last December following revelations of mishandling of data and a report about the fault submitted by the operator.

On Wednesday, the authority also decided to ask the operator to submit by the end of August a revised report on the fault. Some of the meeting participants proposed that the operator withdraw the application altogether and submit a new one. But the proposal was not adopted, as submitting a new application would take a long time and create a burden in terms of screening.

The authority plans to summon the president of Japan Atomic Power and others to confirm their views.