I am Masuhiro Nakano, a JANTI Director of the Operating Experience Analysis Division appointed on June 16, 2011.

I wish to offer my deepest condolences for those who passed away in the Great East Japan Earthquake.My sincere sympathy also goes out to people who are affected by the earthquake or live in evacuation following the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station made all of us involved in nuclear energy reflect seriously upon the adequacy of our past operations.The accident has created a number of important missions, e.g. bringing the situation under full control at an early stage, restoring the site, preventing the recurrence of the Fukushima Daiichi accident and recovering the lost public trust in nuclear energy.

In view of pending issues such as energy security, global warming mitigation and restoration of economic activities, the nation has not yet reached the stage of relying solely on natural energies, and needs to make use of nuclear energy through enhancing the safety of nuclear power stations.

Tokyo Electric Power Company has released data on plant status and operator responses at the time of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.The Japanese government, IAEA and several other organizations have also presented lessons learned from the accident.We will analyze and sort out information from these sources, and apply the knowledge to future initiatives for enhancing the safety of nuclear power stations, as our contribution to preventing the recurrence of the Fukushima Daiichi accident.In response to the needs of member electric utilities, we also intend to obtain information on various countries' preparedness against severe accidents through INPO, WANO and other overseas organizations, so that the information can be utilized in formulating safety measures.

The Division will also maintain its on-going support for performance indicator evaluation and root cause analysis, e.g. summarizing and analyzing operating experience data (information on plant problems in Japan and overseas) and providing it to member utilities for use in recurrence prevention, in an effort to help restore public confidence in nuclear energy.