He began his remarks by referring to earlier comments that he had made on August 20 at a meeting of the Nuclear Energy Subcommittee, under the Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy, which he was attending for the first time as a special member after becoming JAIF president.
At that meeting, he had reiterated the importance of building new nuclear power plants (NPPs) in Japan, pointing out various issues regarding financing, returns on investment (ROI), and regulatory standards for advanced reactors.
At the September 27 press conference, a reporter asked Masui what Japan’s nuclear industry was doing to establish regulations for future advanced reactors. His response was that discussions had already begun with the
In fact, presentations by ATENA have been given at CNO meetings ever since March 2024. At one such meeting, on September 12, one point of discussion was that “foreseeability is not sufficient” but that some progress was being made, with attendees citing the example of the SRZ-1200 advanced light water reactor (LWR) currently under development by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI).
At his press conference this time, the JAIF President also talked about his attendance at the general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), held September 16-20 in Vienna. He referred to speeches by IAEA Director General R. M. GROSSI and Japanese representative UESAKA Mitsuru, chairperson of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC).
Masui also described the performance of the Japanese booth at the IAEA General Conference—themed “Cutting-edge Nuclear Technologies in Japan”—as a great success, mentioning that it had drawn 660 visitors.
After the IAEA General Conference, Masui had attended the second Roadmaps to New Nuclear conference of the OECD/NEA. At the latest press conference, then, he presented the industry’s communiqué from that meeting. Regarding the key areas that the industry had called on the governments of OECD member countries to take decisive action, he commented that he felt that financing, supply chains, human resource development and regulation had been broadly covered.
