Published on Sep.27 ,2013 : The Denki shinbun(The Electric Daily News)
Shojiro Matsuura
Chairman of JANSI

To raise the levels of safety assurance for the use of nuclear energy higher than those required by the safety requirements of the national government, utilities are required as nuclear operators who have the primary responsibility for ensuring safety to continue striving voluntarily for the levels of safety higher than those required by the public regulations.

Such an idea was expressed for the first time in the Kemeny report on the TMI-2 accident (U.S., 1979). This shows that operators’ safety regulations are no less important than the government’s safety regulations in ensuring the safety of nuclear power operations.

U.S. nuclear power operators, who have strongly been influenced by the importance of this idea, established the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO), an independent organization to constantly review, coach, and support their activities to improve the levels of safety. Through many twists and turns, INPO has continued its activities with strong leadership and high engineering capabilities. Since its establishment 34 years ago, its accomplishments have significantly contributed for U.S. nuclear power operations to achieve very high levels both in their safety and operation.

In France, nuclear-related organizations also shared a similar awareness after the TMI-2 accident. EDF, the French operator, is owned by the government, which is different from the U.S. However, it has a similar awareness of the importance of ensuring safety. An independent organization, the Inspector General for Nuclear Safety and Security (IGSN), was created within EDF around the same time, producing highly fruitful results through expert perspectives and independent analyses. Interestingly, both have had a number of navy admirals as past heads of the organizations. The leadership and high expertise of nuclear fleets have tremendously been contributing to improving the levels of safety of civil nuclear power operations. In addition, both are closely exchanging information on ensuring the safety of nuclear power with the government’s regulatory agencies, i.e. NRC (U.S.) and ASN (France).

On the other hand, worldwide efforts of nuclear power operators to improve safety resulted in the establishment of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) in 1989, triggered by the impact of the Chernobyl-4 accident (former Soviet Union, 1986). The WANO is headquartered in London with regional centres in Atlanta, Moscow, Paris, and Tokyo. Its mission is to maximize the safety and reliability of nuclear power worldwide and to achieve the highest possible standards of nuclear safety by bringing together the world’s nuclear power operators to work jointly to assess, benchmark, and improve safety performance through technical support, information exchange, and the competition of best practices.

Now, what about the mindset of the Japanese parties concerned with the above? As pointed out in the reports on the severe accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station filed by the national government, Diet, and others, “operators were thinking that safety could be ensured appropriately only by meeting the national safety standards. The regulatory authorities also were taking it for granted.” This situation continued for many years.

Reflecting on repeated accidents and scandals related to nuclear power, an organization was finally established in 2005 to help Japan’s nuclear power operators voluntarily attain higher levels of safety. The severe accident at Fukushima Daiichi gave a serious impact and regret to the top management of nuclear power operators. This organization went through radical restructuring last year and belatedly started long-lasting activities modeling after the principles and activities of INPO.

Although operators’ safety regulations already have proven track records in other industrial areas, the society is generally skeptical about this type of activities carried out by operators. However, operations that may have a significant regional and long-term impact on society will be required to improve safety on a continuous basis beyond the requirements of public regulations. It is considered a major premise for operators to take it seriously so as to maintain civilized society into the future.

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