Japan Creates Independent Nuclear Agency

Center Continues To Demand That Japanese Government Should Seal Site Immediately

The Japanese government has announced that it is creating an independent nuclear agency, breaking up the ministry that both promotes and regulates atomic energy.  This action is in response to the Fukushima Daiichi plant disaster. The decision to separate the regulator (the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, or NISA) from the promoter (the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, or METI) came as part of a government report that calls for several major overhauls in the way Japan operates its nuclear plants and provides information about the ongoing crisis after the earthquake and tsunami in March. Previously, NISA was a subdivision of METI, an arrangement that critics say contributed to lax oversight of nuclear safety in Japan.

The Center is also calling for Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan to resign because of his refusal to seal the site. We also called for the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) president to resign and he did. Now the new president of Tepco should either seal the site or resign. The Center is encouraging Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama to demand the immediate sealing of the site. Radioactivity from the site has reach the United States. (Wash Post, 6/8/2011)