The main speakers at the symposium were Akihiro Sawa (director of the International Environment and Economy Institute), Shohei Nagatsuji (editorial writer of the Sankei Shimbun) and Dr. Akio Morishima (lawyer and professor emeritus of Nagoya University).
Sawa said that the NRA, judging from its approach to the examinations, appears to misunderstand the issue, saying that it believes that taking an “obstinate attitude” will gain public confidence. Meanwhile, the operators whose nuclear plants are being examined seem to believe that it is enough to get an “OK” from the NRA.
He went on to argue that it would be difficult for the NRA to soften its stance now, but that after the restarting of nuclear power plants (NPPs) has progressed to a certain extent, it would need to fundamentally reconsider the entire matter of safety regulation. That, he said, comes in part from its responsibility to explain and be accountable to the people.
Next, editorial writer Nagatsuji said that as far as the Japanese media are concerned, nuclear power has gone from being a “necessary evil” to an “absolute evil” ever since the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi NPPs.
Referring, for example, to recent newspaper reports, he said that fuel loading into reactors was often written about using such language as “charging nuclear fuel,” terminology normally associated with nuclear weapons. He pointed out that there is a psychological problem.
There were also discussions at the symposium on political involvement in nuclear administration and the legal basis for the examination process. The lawyer Morishima expressed his thoughts on the NRA’s legal positioning and other matters.
