nuclear-news

Japan is no further on in getting new nuclear regulator

 it would lead to problems in the future if the government rushes to restart Japan’s nuclear reactors without changing the current framework, in which the nuclear regulator is under the auspices of its promoter, the industry ministry.

New nuclear regulatory agency still up in air, Mainichi, 7 May 12 TOKYO (Kyodo) — Japan entered a rare period on Sunday of having no nuclear power supply following last year’s
Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant disaster, without seeing much progress on shaping a new nuclear regulatory agency that could play a key role in addressing public concerns over the safety of atomic power.
The government plans to establish a new agency under the Environment Ministry amid criticism that the existing Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency lacks teeth because it is under the umbrella of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry, a promoter of nuclear power.
But parliamentary deliberations on a bill submitted by the government to launch the new agency on April 1 have not yet started and the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party has complained that the organization’s independence would not be sufficiently secure under the government plan.
“What the government is trying to do is just create a second NISA
under the Environment Ministry,” LDP lawmaker and former Chief Cabinet
Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said after the submission of the
government bill in January.
To challenge the government, the LDP, along with its ally, the New
Komeito party, submitted a bill in April that proposes putting a new
agency under the control of what they call a “nuclear regulatory
commission” with a legally guaranteed independence.
The appointment of the five commission members would require Diet
approval and the commission would have the right to decide on the
agency’s personnel and budget matters.
The organizational structure reflects Shiozaki’s view that one of the
important lessons Japan must learn from the Fukushima crisis is to
reduce the risks created by political interference……
The delay in the launch of the new agency has also complicated the
issue of whether to restart two reactors in Fukui Prefecture to
address power shortages in the summer, with some ruling Democratic
Party of Japan lawmakers calling for the government to wait until the
agency is created before making a final decision.
Satoshi Arai, chair of a DPJ taskforce on nuclear accident-related issues, has warned that it would lead to problems in the future if the government rushes to restart them without changing the current framework, in which the nuclear regulator is under the auspices of its
promoter, the industry ministry.
“Industry minister Yukio Edano is in charge of NISA and at the same
time of energy policy … These two functions were what the
International Atomic Energy Agency advised Japan in 2007 to separate,
but what was not implemented,” he told a meeting of party members in
mid-April……..
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120506p2g00m0dm062000c.html

May 7, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, safety