Safety regulation

The accident at Fukushima Daiichi starkly revealed the deficiencies of safety regulation. How is public confidence in nuclear power to be maintained if safety standards are badly designed or simply not enforced? The disaster in Japan resulted from a conjunction of natural forces, but it probably would not have caused so much damage had there been a clearer division between the regulatory authorities and the nuclear power companies they were supposed to be supervising. How then is safety to be effectively regulated? In the absence of powerful, independent, transparent and competent regulatory authorities, nuclear power will not be able to progress worldwide.

Nuclear power is regulated long before work starts on building plants. Investors must obtain a licence from the government or regulatory authority tasked with safety. The design of reactors is subject to a whole series of standards and principles laid down by the public authorities. For construction of the plant to be authorized it must comply with these ‘specifications’. During the construction project the regulatormust check that the relevant standards are being implemented. It must subsequently intervene all the way through the operating life of the plant, from initial grid-connection to final decommissioning. It monitors the operator’s compliance with the safety regulations it has established.