White paper on nuclear safety in 1990

The ensuring of safety is the most important prerequisite for the development and utilization of atomic energy. The Nuclear Safety Commission has promoted the various important measures which become the basis for ensuring safety, such as the execution of strict safety examination, the perfection of the guidelines used for safety examination, the holding of public hearings to consider the opinion of local people, the investigation of failures and troubles, the reflection of the teachings obtained as the results to safety measures and so on. As the results, the safety of Japanese nuclear facilities has maintained high level and reliability internationally. In the white paper on nuclear safety in this year, the activities of the Nuclear Safety Commission and the present status of the measures related to the ensuring of safety in general nuclear facilities are reported. The way of thinking on the safety of atomic energy, which becomes the base of the measures for ensuring safety, is explained. The deterministic safety evaluation currently carried out in Japan and the study on probabilistic safety evaluation are described. The safety measures for radioactive wastes, the protection from the effect of radiation and so on are reported. (K.I.)