Turmoil at nuclear regulatory agencies in Japan and U.S.

[wtmusic]

"Life in the post-Fukushima era for nuclear regulatory agencies in Japan and the United States is not easy. In Japan, the Nuclear Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) is in hot water over revelations that it stacked the deck at public meetings with employees of the nuclear utilities it is supposed to regulate.

Two utilities told the Japanese government that they complied with requests from NISA in 2006 and 2007 to send their employees to public meetings to support proposed licensing decisions. In response to these revelations, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has questioned whether NISA should continue to exist in its present form. He also called for a phaseout of dependence on nuclear power for the Japanese economy.

In the United States, an aggressive plan to apply “lessons learned” from Fukushima to the regulation of the U.S. fleet of reactors has hit the rocks. The so-called 90-day report, supported by the controversial chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), will not be quickly acted on due to opposition from three other commissioners."

http://ansnuclearcafe.org/2011/08/03/turmoil-at-nuclear-regulatory-agencies-in-japan-and-u-s/

[GliderGuider]

1. I thought the orders to stack the meetings originated with the companies themselves.

Knowing that the request came from the regulator makes the situation a whole lot nastier. The regulators are in bed with the industry, just like the USDA and Big Ag, or the FDA and Big Pharma, or the US Treasury Department and Goldman Sachs...

We are witnessing the creation of a global corporatocracy. Don't get me wrong, I for one welcome our new trans-national overlords.

[dtexdem]

2. Misnamed agencies: they should be called the 'nuclear nonregulatory agencies.'

And their business as usual is spelling death to much of the world.

[GliderGuider]

3. "Nuclear Advocacy Agency"

Unfortunately this is happening to many agencies responsible for regulating powerful industries. They end up subverted and captured by the industries themselves - especially if the industries' success is part of government policy.

It's enough to turn one into an anti-corporate anarchist...

[SpoonFed]

4. Wow! NISA is in on it? I wudda never have guessed! n/t