Anniversary of Nuclear Regulation Authority

In United States, NRA stands for a community of fundamentalists of the Second Amendment. In Japan, it represents an independent organization that is responsible for the future of safe energy: Nuclear Regulation Authority. Having celebrated the first anniversary of its establishment, the authority is still in struggle for recovering damaged nuclear regulation policy. Whether it is gaining a grip on power companies may well determine Japan’s destiny.

The main achievement of NRA in its first year was setting regulation standard for nuclear power plants. New standard was adopted as the requirement to all nuclear reactors in Japan starting July. It defined preparation for severe accident as legislative mandate. Power companies need to build “specific security facility” for cooling down containment vessels in emergency by remote controlling. To avoid explosion of buildings, administrators are required to set up ventilation system with filter blocking radioactive materials. Power companies also have to investigate underground active faults made four hundred thousands years ago or newer.

However, the authority has not reflected its power on broken nuclear facility. To be independent from promotional community of nuclear power, the authority had not been involved in dealing with contaminated water in First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. As the result, Tokyo Electric Power Company revealed its incompetence in controlling underground water running through broken facilities and stocked water having used for cooling reactors. The authority demanded TEPCO to take appropriate measures including pumping up the water to avoid, actually reduce, flowing to the ocean.

To let the organization work effectively, it needs more resource than in the first year. For the assessment of existing reactors, the authority has four teams with eighty specialists, which is far from making sufficient manpower. The process of examining nuclear plant has actually been done by power companies. Job of the authority has been checking the report submitted by them. Whether it can be powerful enough to conduct tests by themselves would be the key to restore the credibility of nuclear regulation policy.

There still remain fifty reactors in Japan that are waiting for guarantee of resumption. But, this country is actually dubbed as the nest of earthquakes. If the same kind of accident as First Fukushima happens again, it will be questionable that Japan can remain as a developed country. Although it must make its situation more isolated, the authority has to make decisions on resuming reactors independent from intervention of the pro-nuclear community.