Head of Japan's nuclear safety panel expresses regret+

TOKYO, June 18 Kyodo -
Haruki Madarame, the chairman of the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan, has expressed deep regret over inadequate efforts to enhance the safety of nuclear power generation in the wake of the nuclear crisis, acknowledging the commission's role of monitoring the country's nuclear policy is one of the issues that need to be reevaluated.
In a recent interview with Kyodo News, Madarame, 63, also indicated that he does not cling to the notion that the safety commission must be kept as it is, though saying that its role of presenting basic ideas about nuclear safety ''will never fade away.''
After the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the government has drawn up a report calling for a review of the country's regime for overseeing nuclear power policy.
Madarame's candid admission of problems with nuclear safety administration will likely have some impact on discussions on the fate of atomic power plants as well as on regulatory policy.
On Japan's nuclear safety administration, Madarame, who has been the commission's chair since April 2010, said, ''Our country's way of enforcing regulations was perhaps rigid. I am sincerely repenting over this.''
A former University of Tokyo professor, he said the commission's oversight activities on nuclear policy ''should be evaluated to see if they have been effective.''
Madarame said the International Atomic Energy Agency had pointed out some problems with the role of the Nuclear and Industry Safety Agency under the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry, which promotes nuclear power. Yet Japan ''had not finished addressing'' them, he said.
Japan's nuclear safety regulations are undertaken by the safety agency, which conducts safety screening and scheduled inspections of power plants, and by the safety commission that overseas the agency's activities and also works out safety guidelines.
This setup was called into question after a series of incidents such as sodium coolant leaks at the advanced nuclear power reactor Monju in 1995, an explosion-caused radiation accident at the fuel reprocessing plant at Tokaimura and the reactor suspension at TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant after the 2007 quake.
The IAEA recommended Japan clarify the roles of the safety agency and the safety commission but no radical reform has been undertaken.
Lacking its own team of technical specialists, the commission has also been criticized for having been rubber stamping authorization of nuclear power plant plants screened by the industry ministry.
Madarame said swift safety enhancements have not been taken in revamping various guidelines set out by the safety commission on quake resistance and other issues. ''They have hardly been reviewed because a review, once started, would pose a rather considerable challenge,'' he said.
On the responsibility of the safety commission for the nuclear accident, he said, ''Given that not much progress was made in reviewing the guidelines, it was omission in a sense'' but he fell short of saying how the commission would take responsibility, saying it will be left up to the third-party panel looking into the cause of the accident to decide.
He admitted that Japan's safety regulations have been lagging behind international standards.
In Europe and North America, measures have been taken for a possible severe accident following the 1979 Three Mile Island and 1986 Chernobyl disasters.
In Japan, the safety commission also recommended measures against a severe accident but the government did not make such measures officially required, effectively leaving them to utility companies who are urged to take such steps voluntarily.
IAEA safety standards provide for methods of quantifying risks to the safety of nuclear power plants by computing the probability of possible accidents and problems, but Madarame said, ''Just when we were about to embark on it, the big accident came.''
==Kyodo
2011-06-18 23:55:34