Requirement for qualification and expertise of nuclear regulatory body. Recurrence prevention of Fukushima Daiichi accident

Reflecting Fukushima Daiichi accident occurred in March 2011, Japanese government was considering to create Nuclear Safety Agency under Ministry of Environment. In order to reform nuclear regulations in Japan, not framework but content of regulatory organization, especially upgrade of expertise of upper officials of regulatory organization would be emergent issues. Minister and upper officials of Nuclear Safety Agency should be nominated based on capability and their period of employment should be comparable with that of various countries of Europe and the US. Immediate future regulatory actions should be focused on systematic approach on new regulatory issues, periodical review of existing regulatory requirements and establishment of investigation process of different opinions of experts. Japanese nuclear safety regulation should be reviewed again by IAEA, which would be most efficient way to raise it to an international level. (T. Tanaka)