Japanese Nuclear Safety Commission
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Japan's was a commission established within the Cabinet of Japan as an independent agency to play the main role in nuclear safety administration. Commissioners are appointed by the
Prime Minister of Japan The prime minister of Japan (Japanese: 内閣総理大臣, Hepburn: ''Naikaku Sōri-Daijin'') is the head of government of Japan. The prime minister chairs the Cabinet of Japan and has the ability to select and dismiss its Ministers of Sta ...
on Diet approval. The commission has stronger authority than any other ordinary advisory committees, in that the commission can make recommendations to relevant agencies in the name of the prime minister if it is necessary. The Nuclear Safety Commission reviews safety inspections conducted by regulatory agencies, such as the
Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency The was a Japanese nuclear regulatory and oversight branch of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). It was created in 2001 during the 2001 Central Government Reform. Especially afte ...
. In 2007, the independence of the Nuclear Safety Commission was questioned by seismologist Professor Katsuhiko Ishibashi, after a senior Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency official appeared to rule out a new review of the NSC's seismic design standards.Katsuhiko Ishibashi
"Why worry? Japan's nuclear plants at grave risk from quake damage"
''The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus'' (August 11, 2007) Also published by the ''International Herald Tribune'' (August 11, 2007). Retrieved March 24, 2011
Madarame Haruki, as chairman of the Nuclear Safety Commission (2010–2012), was an ardent pro-nuclear advocate. However, his inquiry testimony in the Diet in February 2012, showed that he had become critical of the commission's approach. He said that "Japan's atomic safety rules are inferior to global standards and left the country unprepared for the
Fukushima nuclear disaster The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 ...
last March". There were flaws in, and lax enforcement of, the safety rules governing Japanese nuclear power companies, and this included insufficient protection against tsunamis. He said the nuclear power industry had strenuously opposed adopting stricter international safety standards. He spoke of officials ignoring nuclear risks and said, "We ended up wasting our time looking for excuses that these measures are not needed in Japan". Madarame also asserted that Japan's safety monitoring technology is outdated, while acknowledging that the Nuclear Safety Commission had, "…succumbed to a blind belief in the country’s technical prowess and failed to thoroughly assess the risks of building nuclear reactors in an earthquake-prone country". Regulators and the utilities missed many opportunities to improve operating safety standards and warned that safety regulations are fundamentally inadequate and minimally enforced. He also asserted that
regulatory capture In politics, regulatory capture (also agency capture and client politics) is a form of corruption of authority that occurs when a political entity, policymaker, or regulator is co-opted to serve the commercial, ideological, or political interests ...
was an issue, where regulators had little power and were often subsumed by utility interests. In Madarame's view, there has been a collective heedlessness about safety and inadequate risk management.Jeff Kingston,
Japan's Nuclear Village
," The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 10, Issue 37, No. 1, September 10, 2012.
It was reported that the government plans to merge the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency with the Nuclear Safety Commission, to create a new nuclear safety agency, under the environment ministry, by April 2012. The
Nuclear Regulation Authority The is an administrative body of the Cabinet of Japan established to ensure nuclear safety in Japan as part of the Ministry of the Environment. Established on September 19, 2012, its first head was Shunichi Tanaka. Background The NRA was fo ...
was created on September 19, 2012.


History

*December 1955 Promulgation of the
Atomic Energy Basic Law {{Nihongo, The Atomic Energy Basic Law, 原子力基本法, Genshi-ryoku Kihon Hō, Act No. 186 of 1955, lead=yes is a Japanese law passed December 19, 1955. It outlined the basics for the use of nuclear power in Japan. Overview Article 1 (Objectiv ...
and Law Establishing the Atomic Energy Commission. *November 1956 Inauguration of Atomic Energy Commission. *October 1978 Nuclear Safety Commission spun off from Atomic Energy Commission. *January 1979 Consistent regulatory administration for nuclear safety introduced and counter- checking system established. *October 1981 Publication of the 1st White Paper on Nuclear Safety. *November 1999 Role of Nuclear Safety Commission legally specified with enactment of the Special Measures of Nuclear Disaster Act. Role to include technical advice to Prime Minister in nuclear disaster. *April 2000 Functions of Commission Secretariat transferred from old Science and Technology Agency to old Prime Minister's Office. *January 2001 With government reorganization, functions of Nuclear Safety Commission and its secretariat transferred to Cabinet Office. *December 2002 Strengthening the functional capability of overlooking and auditing the activities of regulatory body on account of the amendment of the regulation laws on the nuclear reactors, etc. *July 13, 2011 Japanese Nuclear Safety Commission made official announcement at last the report dated June 11, 1993 (
Heisei The is the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Emeritus Akihito from 8 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. The Heisei era started on 8 January 1989, the day after the death of the Emperor Hirohito, ...
5) titled lit. ''The event of entire alternating current station blackout on the nuclear power plant (原子力発電所における全交流電源喪失事象について)'' conducted by a working group. This is reporting the evaluation of the regulations against the possible occurrence of the entire loss or station blackout (SBO) of
alternating current Alternating current (AC) is an electric current which periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time in contrast to direct current (DC) which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in whic ...
in nuclear power plants in other countries and Japan, and it resulted the necessities of further discussions on the methodology to avoid or recover the SBO, and it reported the probability of SBO in Japan is less than other countries on its
reliability Reliability, reliable, or unreliable may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Computing * Data reliability (disambiguation), a property of some disk arrays in computer storage * High availability * Reliability (computer networking), a ...
. * On August 26, 2011, the Office for the Preparation of Nuclear Safety Regulatory Organization Reform was established at Japan's Cabinet Secretariat in Nagatacho, Tokyo. Later that day a celebration was held in Kasumigaseki. This reform was to split the promotion of nuclear power from the control-function. The task of the new office was to make preparations to realize the new control-body under the Ministry of Environment (MOE) in April 2012 including the necessary legislation for this. The office would be manned with 37 staff members from the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and other ministries and agencies, and some delegations from private companies. *On 2 January 2012 Haruki Madarame, since April 2011 appointed as chief of the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan, acknowledged that he had received 4 million yen from 2009 to 2011 from
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is a Japanese multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group and its automobile division is the predecessor of Mitsubishi Mo ...
, a big manufacturer of nuclear power reactors. Another member of the government panel, Seiji Shiroya was paid 3.1 million yen by
Japan Atomic Industrial Forum Inc. Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
over three years to 2009, while he was professor at the
University of Kyoto , mottoeng = Freedom of academic culture , established = , type = Public (National) , endowment = ¥ 316 billion (2.4 billion USD) , faculty = 3,480 (Teaching Staff) , administrative_staff = 3,978 (Total Staff) , students = 22 ...
. According to Madarame, a former professor of the
University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project b ...
, these donations had no influence on their decision-making, when they were promoting nuclear safety by double-checking the regulatory measures implemented by the nuclear industry and science ministries. According to the two scientists, the donations were intended to promote nuclear research, and the money was spent on research and to cover the costs of business trips. Madarame added that all records of the panel-meetings were made published, and the public should judge whether these donations were appropriate.The Mainichi Daily News (3 January 2012
2 nuclear safety panel members got 7.1 mil. yen donation from industry


See also

* Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster *
Japanese reaction to Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster The Japanese reaction occurred after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. A nuclear emergency was declared by the government of Japan on 11 March. Later Prime Minister Naoto Kan issued instr ...
*
Kudo-kai The is a yakuza group headquartered in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka on the Kyushu island of Japan, with an estimated 220 active members.List of Japanese nuclear incidents This is a list of Japanese atomic, nuclear and radiological accidents, incidents and disasters. List List of plants affected by 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami * Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant * Higashidōri Nuclear Power Plant * Tōkai ...
*
Nuclear power in Japan Prior to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Japan had generated 30% of its electrical power from nuclear reactors and planned to increase that share to 40%. Nuclear power energy was a national strategic priority in Japan. , of the 54 nu ...
*
Nuclear safety and security Nuclear safety is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as "The achievement of proper operating conditions, prevention of accidents or mitigation of accident consequences, resulting in protection of workers, the public and the ...


References

{{Authority control Nuclear Nuclear regulatory organizations Nuclear safety in Japan Nuclear technology organizations of Japan