In my last post, I talked about how Barbara Judge had been hired by TEPCO and brought to Japan to help TEPCO achieve a “culture of nuclear safety.” The Japanese government has drafted new more stringent guidelines for safety at nuclear reactors and stated that they will require implementation of the new regulations at any Japanese nuclear power plant as a precondition for granting permission to restart reactors at those plants. There is general agreement among the government, media and public of Japan that nuclear safety must be given high priority if Japan is going to continue to utilize nuclear power to generate electricity.
Unfortunately, the Japanese nuclear regulators are skeptical that such a “culture of nuclear safety” can be implemented any time soon in Japan. At a recent press conference, Shunichi Tanaka, the Chairman of Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Authority, offered his opinions on nuclear safety in Japan. He said that it would take “a long time” for Japanese safety standards to rise to the level of international nuclear safety standards. He admitted that prior to the Fukushima disaster, nuclear power plant operators seemed to lack awareness of just how dangerous nuclear power generation could be. This is a startling admission on the part of the agency charged with regulating the nuclear industry in Japan.
The new regulations that have just been imposed by Japan on nuclear power plant operators cannot be satisfied unless there is a serious change in the current “culture” of the Japanese nuclear industry. This is a rather nice way of saying that nuclear power plant owners were not operating their power plants safely before the Fukushima disaster. The Japanese government has said that the reactors cannot be restarted until the new regulations are observed and the head of the Japanese nuclear authority says that the nuclear industry cannot change practices easily or quickly. Nuclear power plant owners are already applying for permits to restart reactors. Obviously, the government cannot grant permission in the near future without being willing to ignore the new regulations.
Only two nuclear power plants are currently operating in Japan. Restarting those two plants was extremely unpopular with the public and led to widespread protests and losses at the polls for the then current government. However, the new government that won in the recent elections seems even more committed to nuclear power than the government that fell. Prime Minister Abe, head of the new government, wants to make nuclear power in Japan and export of nuclear technology the foundation of his plans to reenergize the Japanese economy. With this policy decision, I have to wonder how dedicated the new government will be to insuring that the nuclear industry in Japan observes the new regulations.
The price tag for making the changes required by the new regulations could be as high as twelve billion dollars. Tanaka said at the press conference that his agency had the power and the dedication make sure that the new regulations would be observed at any power plant that was granted permission to restart their reactors. All this sounds nice but only time will tell whether the Japanese Nuclear Regulatory Authority or the economic priorities of the new Abe administration in Japan will have the final say in whether the new “culture of nuclear safety” actually appears in Japan any time soon.
