A delay in establishing a new nuclear regulatory agency from April 1 has put the government in a bind.
A delay in establishing a new nuclear regulatory agency from April 1 has put the government in a bind.It must continue to rely on the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) and the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan (NSC) to consider new safety regulations for nuclear power plants.NISA is an arm of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the NSC falls under the jurisdiction of the Cabinet Office.In the five-member NSC, the terms of three are due to expire on April 16 and no successors have been decided.As for NISA, it has not yet decided the schedule for checking the results of stress tests carried out by electric power companies.The NSC members whose terms expire in mid-April are Yutaka Kukita, Shizuyo Kusumi and Osamu Oyamada. The NSC is obliged to obtain the consent of at least three members, including its chairman, when it makes decisions.Thus, the imminent departure of the three members will render the NSC impotent.The problem is compounded by the fact that the Diet has yet to start deliberations on bills for the establishment of the nuclear regulatory agency.Environment Minister Goshi Hosono, who is also the state minister in charge of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, met with Kukita, Kusumi and Oyamada on March 29.The three members told him they still intend to resign, adding that they realized the importance of maintaining NSC functions.In a March 30 news conference, Hosono said, "I hope to reach a decision on how best to maintain NSC functions."Finding replacements presents another headache for the government because the NSC will cease to exist once the new regulatory agency is established.Also, there are no guarantees the government will win Diet approval, which is necessary for the appointment of new NSC members.Even if replacements are found and the Diet gives its approval, it would be difficult to generate interest among the new members given the uncertainty over the start of the new agency.The NSC has been working on revised guidelines on quake resistance and disaster preparedness since crisis struck the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant a year ago.Because of the March deadline, members ignored aspects that they felt required more time for review. They had planned to hand over those matters to the new regulatory agency.Even if the NSC is maintained for the time being, it is by no means certain that the members would start reviewing those items."We cannot review guidelines in only several months. Unless the schedule (for the establishment of the new regulatory agency) is decided, we cannot judge which of those items the NSC can tackle,” said an official of the secretariat for the NSC.Areas to be turned over to the new regulatory agency include the checks of NISA’s first-stage assessment of stress tests conducted by Shikoku Electric Power Co. on the No. 3 reactor of Ikata nuclear power plant in Ehime Prefecture.The schedule for the check has not been decided.NISA faces similar problems.It held meetings in March to hear the opinions of experts on aging nuclear reactors, stress tests and quake-resistance safety, among other issues. Meetings were held two to eight times a week.Agency executives say they want to hold meetings in April, too. However, no schedule for those meetings has been drawn up on the agency’s website.