Japan Plans Nuke Oversight Reform

The New York Times reports:

Responding to criticism that lax oversight played a role in the Fukushima nuclear accident, Japan’s government could give its nuclear regulatory agency more independence as early as next year, the country’s minister of trade and industry said.

The minister, Banri Kaieda, said the government wanted to separate the agency from his ministry, which is in charge of promoting Japan’s nuclear industry. Cozy ties between government and industry are now widely blamed for allowing the Fukushima Daiichi plant to operate despite inadequate backup power systems or protections against large tsunamis before the devastating earthquake on March 11.

Mr. Kaieda made the vague pledge of reform on Monday in Vienna, during a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the global nuclear watchdog. At the meeting, the head of the I.A.E.A., Yukiya Amano, said that nuclear regulators must be “genuinely independent,” echoing a criticism that his agency has repeatedly made of Japan’s nuclear oversight in the past.