An incoming commissioner of the Nuclear Regulation Authority received payments from the nuclear industry until last month, raising fresh doubts about his impartiality at the nuclear watchdog, The Asahi Shimbun has found.
An incoming commissioner of the Nuclear Regulation Authority received payments from the nuclear industry until last month, raising fresh doubts about his impartiality at the nuclear watchdog, The Asahi Shimbun has found. Satoru Tanaka, a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Tokyo, received the unknown amount of money from Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd., operator of a nuclear fuel recycling program, and Mitsubishi FBR Systems Inc., a nuclear plant maker. Tanaka, 64, sat on the “advisory committee” of Tokyo-based Mitsubishi FBR Systems between July 2007 and June this year, according to university records obtained by The Asahi Shimbun through the information disclosure law. He also chaired the panel for evaluating vitrification technology at Japan Nuclear Fuel in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, from May 2009 to March this year. Tanaka was nominated for the NRA post by the Abe administration in May. Under the guidelines for nominating NRA commissioners, candidates who received more than 500,000 yen ($4,900) a year from the nuclear industry within three years are disqualified. But it is not clear how much Tanaka received from the two companies because the payment entries were blackened out in the university records. He also did not declare the payment in his report on his association with the nuclear industry that was submitted to the NRA in April, when he became a member of an NRA special committee. “Since I am now a counselor of the NRA, I am not in a position to talk about the matter,” Tanaka told The Asahi Shimbun. Both Japan Nuclear Fuel and Mitsubishi FBR Systems also declined to give details about the payment. Tanaka resigned from the post at Mitsubishi FBR Systems in June, when both Diet chambers approved his nomination as NRA commissioner. He will assume the post in September. The NRA oversees both Japan Nuclear Fuel, which reprocesses and disposes of spent nuclear fuel, and Mitsubishi FBR Systems, which is developing a fast-breeder nuclear reactor. The nomination of Tanaka came under fire from critics of nuclear power generation. Both the ruling and opposition camps widely perceive him as a “resident” of the “nuclear village.” Tanaka, a former president of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan, was also a director of Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, a nuclear industry group, between fiscal 2010 and 2012. He continued to take a pro-nuclear stance after the Fukushima nuclear disaster unfolded in March 2011. The NRA was established in September 2012 to impose stricter safety standards for nuclear reactors and to help end the cozy relations between the industry and politicians that could compromise safety. Earlier, Tanaka was found to have received a total of 5.1 million yen in research donations from nuclear power-related companies between fiscal 2006 and fiscal 2011. He also received more than 500,000 yen from a foundation linked to Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the crippled Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant, in fiscal 2011. Toyoshi Fuketa, one of the NRA commissioners, reported to the watchdog that he was paid about 460,000 yen by Japan Atomic Power Co., a nuclear power plant operator, for giving lectures and producing texts over three years between fiscal 2009 and 2011. The former administration led by the Democratic Party of Japan compiled the guidelines for nominating NRA commissioners to ensure impartiality and transparency of NRA safety inspections. The guidelines require disclosure of the amount of donations provided by nuclear power plant operators. They also dictate that an individual who has served as a director or worked for a nuclear power plant operator within three years of assuming the NRA post is not eligible. But the current government led by the Liberal Democratic Party apparently has little regard for the guidelines. “We do not refer to the guidelines set by the DPJ,” Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara told the Lower House Environment Committee session in June. He also said the LDP-led government has no plans to produce new guidelines.