Recent developments could compromise the independence of the Nuclear Regulation Authority.

Does the Kishida administration fully understand the authority and significance of the regulatory body, which was set up in 2012 on the lessons learned from the Fukushima nuclear disaster of the previous year?

The government should not be allowed to pressure the nuclear watchdog into rushing to take action to usher in a revival of nuclear power generation.

The government has plans to submit an amendment bill to the current Diet session that would enable operation of nuclear reactors that are more than 60 years old.

Allowing reactors to operate beyond 60 years would require changing a number of existing institutional systems, including safety regulations that are in the NRA’s domain. 

The regulatory body on Feb. 13 decided to start working out a new corresponding set of regulations.

The NRA’s decision, however, was made despite an objection from one of the watchdog’s five commissioners. The proceedings had been conducted in such a manner that another commissioner, who approved the decision, said the NRA had been pressed to discuss the matter in haste.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida subsequently ordered Cabinet ministers with relevant portfolios to “give careful explanations on the policy’s objectives,” “concretize new safety regulations” and “develop institutional arrangements, both public and private, toward the goal of appropriate safety screenings.”

Environment Minister Akihiro Nishimura said he summoned Hiromu Katayama, secretary-general of the NRA Secretariat, to convey Kishida’s thoughts to him.

The government may have hoped to fend off criticism by emphasizing that it is working to ensure safety measures. The wisdom of having conveyed the message to the NRA official, however, is debatable.

Commissions set up on the basis of Article 3 of the National Government Organization Law, of which the NRA is one, are entitled to exercise independent authority without being directed or supervised by Cabinet ministers or other officials.

The Law for Establishment of the NRA says its chairman and commissioners “will exercise their authority independently, based on their own expertise, from a neutral and fair standpoint” and the secretary-general of its Secretariat “shall take control of the affairs of the Secretariat in accordance with the orders of the chairman.”

Nishimura, in the meantime, said he does not believe that he weakened the NRA’s independence by conveying the gist of Kishida’s thoughts to the secretary-general.

“I don’t mind it at all,” NRA Chairman Shinsuke Yamanaka chimed in. “I don’t care a bit about what Kishida has in mind, which, at any rate, is not much different from what we are planning to do.”

Officials of the NRA Secretariat said, however, that never in the watchdog’s history had a prime minister’s order been conveyed to it. One expert said that conveying the order to the regulatory body as if to pressure it to work out new standards in a hurry is “little less than applying pressure on the NRA.”

Starting last summer, discussions have been held, under the initiative of government offices that promote the use of atomic energy, with the foregone conclusion that the operational periods of nuclear reactors will be extended and a time frame set for having relevant laws amended correspondingly during the current Diet session.

All that, combined with the latest development, seriously undermines the principle that functions for promoting and regulating nuclear power should be separated from each other.

If Kishida’s foremost priority is on safety, he has no need to rush a decision to extend the operational periods of nuclear reactors, which, at any rate, would have no bearing on the supply and demand of power for the immediate future.

An NRA team for discussing details of the new regulations only met for the first time on Feb. 22.

The NRA should discuss carefully, without setting a time limit, whether it is possible to design a mechanism that would ensure the safety of nuclear reactors that are more than 60 years old.

No substantial deliberations could be held in the Diet if a bill for allowing reactors to operate for more than 60 years were to be submitted to it while the NRA is still discussing the matter.

The Kishida administration should stop prioritizing the time frame it has set and wait for discussions to be made thoroughly within the NRA.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 26