At a regular meeting on January 14, Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) revised its approach to carrying out compatibility examinations now progressing under the new regulatory standards. Specifically, it has decided to simultaneously carry out examinations of issues common to multiple NPPs.
Already, at the hearing stage, concurrent review is being made of multiple cases having common accident analysis codes. In future evaluation meetings, however, efficiency will be improved to the maximum extent possible by having all the applicants make their explanations at the same venue, with common issues to be considered together.
NRA Commissioner Toyoshi Fuketa lamented the obvious inefficiencies of the older system, saying that the organization “sometimes had to hear the same explanation from multiple companies, and repeat the same response and instructions to each of them.”
In view of the expected heavier workload stemming from additional examinations, all the commissioners have agreed on the need to consider improvements in the examination method. The NRA Secretariat is to develop them in detail.
