Japanese Nuclear Safety Commission - History

History

• December 1955 Promulgation of the Atomic Energy Basic Law and Law Establishing the Atomic Energy Commission.
• November 1956 Inauguration of Atomic Energy Commission.
• October 1978 Nuclear Safety Commission spun off from Atomic Energy Commission.
• January 1979 Consistent regulatory administration for nuclear safety introduced and counter- checking system established.
• October 1981 Publication of the 1st White Paper on Nuclear Safety.
• November 1999 Role of Nuclear Safety Commission legally specified with enactment of the Special Measures of Nuclear Disaster Act. Role to include technical advice to Prime Minister in nuclear disaster.
• April 2000 Functions of Commission Secretariat transferred from old Science and Technology Agency to old Prime Minister's Office.
• January 2001 With government reorganization, functions of Nuclear Safety Commission and its Secretariat transferred to Cabinet Office.
• December 2002 Strengthening the functional capability of overlooking and auditing the activities of regulatory body on account of the amendment of the regulation laws on the nuclear reactors, etc.
• July 13, 2011 Japanese Nuclear Safety Commission made official announcement at last the report dated June 11, 1993 (Heisei 5) titled lit. The event of entire alternating current station blackout on the nuclear power plant (原子力発電所における全交流電源喪失事象について) conducted by a working group. This is reporting the evaluation of the regulations against the possible occurrence of the entire loss or station blackout (SBO) of alternating current in nuclear power plants in other countries and Japan, and it resulted the necessities of further discussions on the methodology to avoid or recover the SBO, and it reported the probability of SBO in Japan is less than other countries on its reliability.
• On August 26, 2011, the Office for the Preparation of Nuclear Safety Regulatory Organization Reform was established at Japan’s Cabinet Secretariat in Nagatacho, Tokyo. Later that day a celebration was held in Kasumigaseki. This reform was to split the promotion of nuclear power from the control-function. The task of the new office was to make preparations to realize the new control-body under the Ministry of Environment (MOE) in April 2012 including the necessary legislation for this. The office would be manned with 37 staff members from the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and other ministries and agencies, and some delegations from private companies.
• On 2 January 2012 Haruki Madarame, since April 2011 appointed as chief of the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan, acknowledged that he had received 4 million yen from 2009-11 from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a big manufacturer of nuclear power reactors. Another member of the government panel, Seiji Shiroya was paid 3.1 milion yen by Japan Atomic Industrial Forum Inc. over three years to 2009, while he was professor at the University of Kyoto. According to Madarame, a former professor of the University of Tokyo, these donations had no influence on their decision-making, when they were promoting nuclear safety by double-checking the regulatory measures implemented by the nuclear industry and science ministries. According to the two scientists, the donations were intended to promote nuclear research, and the money was spent on research and to cover the costs of business trips. Madarame added that all records of the panel-meetings were made published, and the public should judge whether these donations were appropriate.