Comments from the President on the
“Report on the Results of Inspection and Investigation of Power Plant Facilities”
Recently, reports from electric power companies(EPCs) to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry have brought to light evidence that EPCs have been involved in falsification of data, failure to adequately perform necessary procedure, and even concealment of information of power plant facilities.
Most such incidents are of the past and have been thoroughly revealed by EPCs with pain, however it is truly regrettable in particular that the existence of incidents concerning the safety of nuclear power generation has been covered up, and data falsified, as has finally been revealed through orders from the national government.
It has also become clear in the course of the inspection and investigation at this time that operational experience information has not, as required, been sufficiently registered in the “Nuclear Information Archives” (NUCIA) which is operated by Japan Nuclear Technology Institute(JANTI). This is a problem that has been around since before NUCIA started operations. While it was left up to EPCs to independently decide whether or not to register such lacking operational experience information, I think that from the perspective of sharing information and making effective use of it, NUCIA should indeed have been used aggressively.
Looking at the responses of EPCs to these issues, they have not greatly resulted independent activity yet, and JANTI believes that the current situation cannot be said to be one in which such practices of the past have been entirely eliminated.
In view of this alarming situation, henceforth in order to boost its support in the promotion of voluntary safety activities by EPCs, JANTI will press for proactive handling of operational experience information, and at the same time will to a greater extent than before follow up on the progress of such activities with a strengthened monitoring capability.
To be specific, we plan to gather more operational experience information than before, and strengthen links with power companies for increased sharing with them while also further developing NUCIA at JANTI as well, and support the voluntary safety activities of EPCs. Finally, to build awareness of a safety culture, we intend to use peer review and other tools to enrich the dialogue with EPCs.
Of course, EPCs themselves also will of their own accord rigidly implement the measures they have announced against reoccurrence of such incidents, and in addition conduct operations with safety assigned the highest priority, but it is desirable that voluntary safety activities be vigorously pursued without unnecessary burdens on onsite operations, and without withering due to the results of the present investigation. Also, it is to be hoped that EPCs will be able to recover as soon as possible the trust of local communities where the nuclear power stations are located and the public at large.
With regard to the matter of BWR control rod removal, JANTI has arrived at a technological understanding of core behavior, taking heed of the importance of the effects of its special characteristics. In addition, in the future, we plan to advance a proposal for improvement measures aimed at reliably preventing reoccurrence and further strengthening safety.
Moreover, JANTI plans to conduct a careful examination of the content of other potential concerns that have been reported at this time, and will take appropriate measures to deal with any for which it proves necessary.
|
