At the outset of the meeting, NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka referred to ongoing examinations \u2014 made after applications submitted by the power utilities themselves \u2014 of the compatibility of their nuclear power plants (NPPs) with the new national regulatory standards that came into effect in July 2013. The new standards were based on the lessons learned from the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in March 2011.<\/p>\n
Stressing that \u201cnuclear operators are primarily responsible for ensuring nuclear safety,\u201d Tanaka noted the significance of talking directly with top executives about such matters as the \u201cfermentation\u201d and \u201cpermeation\u201d of safety culture in their organizations.<\/p>\n
Next to speak was Kyushu Electric Power\u2019s President Uriu. He explained such matters as his company\u2019s activities toward enhancing safety culture, strengthening risk management, communicating with regional residents, and improving safety at NPPs. The power company carries out all those tasks continuously on its own initiative under a framework of \u201crisk governance led by top management.\u201d<\/p>\n
Uriu also talked about the personal thoughts that he has been conveying to all employees, as head of the company. Those include the need to keep up to date with the latest information about the uncertainty of natural disasters, severe accident measures, and probabilistic risk assessment (PRA). He also cited the importance of \u201ctaking a hands-on approach,\u201d solidifying the system of human resource development, and engaging in effective risk management.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, NRA Commissioner Toyoshi Fuketa asked about Kyushu Electric Power\u2019s investment decisions, in view of potential \u201cbad events\u201d that might happen but are not certain to occur. The power company\u2019s representatives responded that they cannot ignore risks whose effects might be great \u2014 even with a low probability of actually happening \u2014 adding that they hoped to implement the most effective method to enhance corporate value.<\/p>\n
As for the system requiring nuclear operators to improve their safety voluntarily, Kyushu Electric Power noted that \u201call operators should work hard together\u201d through peer reviews under the auspices of the Japan Nuclear Safety Institute (JANSI).<\/p>\n
Asked by the NRA for suggestions for improving the regulatory system, the power company\u2019s representatives said, \u201cAs we are undergoing a regulatory examination at the moment, we are not in a position to speak on the matter at this time, though we may make various proposals in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At the outset of the meeting, NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka referred to ongoing examinations \u2014 made after applications submitted by the power utilities themselves \u2014 of the compatibility of their nuclear power plants (NPPs) with the new national regulatory standards that came into effect in July 2013. The new standards were based on the lessons […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6,8,7],"tags":[151,37,19,79,18,149,150,148],"class_list":["post-466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-npps","category-policies","category-regulation-safety","tag-jansi","tag-kyushu","tag-nra","tag-pra","tag-restart","tag-shunichi-tanaka","tag-toyoshi-fuketa","tag-uriu"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":593,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions\/593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}