August 2011

Review on an Organization in charge of Nuclear Safety Regulation

On 5 August, Mr. Goshi HOSONO, Minister for the Restoration from and Prevention of Nuclear Accident, announced his tentative plan to review an organization in charge of nuclear safety regulation.

He announced that (1) the government should firstly conduct an immediate review, mainly on the separation of the Nuclear and Industry Safety Agency (NISA) from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) so that an new regulatory body can be created in April 2012. He also pointed out that (2) the government should further conduct broader study on a future nuclear and energy policy review as well as the outcome of the investigation into the accident, it should then present the result of its review by around the end of 2012 on areas covered by the new organization and on the way to upgrade a more effective and robust organization. Taking into consideration five principles below, a tentative plan for a review on a new regulatory organization was presented.

1. Separation of regulation and promotion functions
2. Unification of relevant functions regarding nuclear safety regulations
3. Strengthening of the crisis management functions
4. Reform of organizational culture, and securing/training talented experts
5. Strengthening of new nuclear safety regulations

For relevant materials, please click here (tentative translation)(PDF:35KB).