Commissioner calls for verifiable probe of Fukushima nuke crisis
Apr. 14, 2011
By Masakatsu Ota
The vice chairman of the government's Japan Atomic Energy Commission emphasized this week that Japan should thoroughly investigate the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in an internationally verifiable manner, possibly by involving experts from other countries to help guarantee the openness and transparency of the probe.
An independent third-party panel, rather than the government's Nuclear Safety Commission, should study the accident's causes and the series of crisis management steps taken in order for Japan to regain the trust of the international community, Tatsujiro Suzuki said in an interview Wednesday with Kyodo News.
As Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano has called for launching such a panel, with Prime Minister Naoto Kan vowing to inform the international community of the lessons and experiences of the crisis, the problem will likely be how it would engage foreign experts in establishing the facts about the accident, one of the worst in the world.
''It is desirable that we take an approach different from past accident investigations,'' said Suzuki, the No. 2 among the five commissioners appointed by the prime minister to take charge of Japan's basic nuclear policies, while noting that it is his personal view.
Calling for ''a transparent approach that can be verified later by the international community,'' he warned that Japan would otherwise lose fundamental trust from other countries, citing many negative views about its response to the ongoing crisis in comments he has received from abroad.
As options for how to involve foreign experts, he pointed out that the government may either engage the International Atomic Energy Agency in the probe by the envisaged panel, set up a ''wise-person committee'' of foreign experts to give advice to the panel or ask an internationally renowned academic institution such as the U.S. National Academy of Sciences to verify the results of the probe.
If Japan wants to continue promoting nuclear energy, it should first ''frankly reflect on the lack of measures against tsunami'' and secure the safety of and public confidence in nuclear power as ''the basic conditions,'' said Suzuki, former associate vice president at the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry who has served on the government panel since January last year.
To deal with the prolonged crisis, Tokyo should ''vigorously gather international knowledge and wisdom and adopt the best of it,'' possibly through a framework to absorb the expertise of foreign experts, he said.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on April 14, 2011)
The vice chairman of the government's Japan Atomic Energy Commission emphasized this week that Japan should thoroughly investigate the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in an internationally verifiable manner, possibly by involving experts from other countries to help guarantee the openness and transparency of the probe.
An independent third-party panel, rather than the government's Nuclear Safety Commission, should study the accident's causes and the series of crisis management steps taken in order for Japan to regain the trust of the international community, Tatsujiro Suzuki said in an interview Wednesday with Kyodo News.
As Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano has called for launching such a panel, with Prime Minister Naoto Kan vowing to inform the international community of the lessons and experiences of the crisis, the problem will likely be how it would engage foreign experts in establishing the facts about the accident, one of the worst in the world.
''It is desirable that we take an approach different from past accident investigations,'' said Suzuki, the No. 2 among the five commissioners appointed by the prime minister to take charge of Japan's basic nuclear policies, while noting that it is his personal view.
Calling for ''a transparent approach that can be verified later by the international community,'' he warned that Japan would otherwise lose fundamental trust from other countries, citing many negative views about its response to the ongoing crisis in comments he has received from abroad.
As options for how to involve foreign experts, he pointed out that the government may either engage the International Atomic Energy Agency in the probe by the envisaged panel, set up a ''wise-person committee'' of foreign experts to give advice to the panel or ask an internationally renowned academic institution such as the U.S. National Academy of Sciences to verify the results of the probe.
If Japan wants to continue promoting nuclear energy, it should first ''frankly reflect on the lack of measures against tsunami'' and secure the safety of and public confidence in nuclear power as ''the basic conditions,'' said Suzuki, former associate vice president at the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry who has served on the government panel since January last year.
To deal with the prolonged crisis, Tokyo should ''vigorously gather international knowledge and wisdom and adopt the best of it,'' possibly through a framework to absorb the expertise of foreign experts, he said.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on April 14, 2011)
