Japan aims to improve nuclear plant safety rules
Date: 27-Sep-02
Country: JAPAN
Japan's largest power utility, Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc (TEPCO) , admitted in late August that it had hidden the existence of cracks at several of its nuclear reactors over a period of years, partly by falsifying data on safety checks.
Since then several other power firms have said they had also failed to report cracks at their nuclear reactors.
The firms have said the cracks were not reported because they were not seen as posing a threat to the safe operation of the power plants.
Thursday's measures, put together by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, include establishing a standard by which to measure whether a defect jeopardises safety or not.
This was in response to criticism that current safety standards were too vague.
The agency also proposed improving the disclosure of safety information, as well as imposing a penalty on violators.
Bills to revise the current law are due to be submitted at the next parliamentary session.
Resource-poor Japan relies on nuclear power for a third of its power supply.
