Nuclear future: Who will be responsible for what?

April 12, 2014

Gov't, energy industry squabble over who will take responsibility for nuclear accidents

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/perspectives/news/20140412p2a00m0na017000c.html 

In this collage, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, top; Chairman of the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan Makoto Yagi, left; and Chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority Shunichi Tanaka, right, are seen, with Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s Sendai Nuclear Power Plant in Kagoshima Prefecture in the background. (Mainichi)

The government has decided on its first basic energy plan since the Fukushima nuclear disaster and is again pushing to make nuclear power a crucial part of it. But it's unclear who will handle the decisions to reactivate individual nuclear plants or respond in the event of another nuclear disaster.

The energy plan, passed by the Cabinet on April 11, makes reviving nuclear power a national policy. Under the plan, energy companies will continue to own nuclear plants and be held responsible if a disaster occurs.

Previously, the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan (FEPC) had no major objections to a completely free energy market. But in November last year, after seeing an outline of the new energy plan and its onus on utilities, the federation did an about-face. Energy companies represented by the federation were reluctant to face increased competition from a free energy market on top of the potential costs of a nuclear disaster.

In February this year, lawmakers hailing from the Kansai region and backed by the FEPC opposed a free energy market during a meeting on revisions to the Electricity Business Act at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters. They argued that a stable energy supply should be the top priority.

The federation took into account the huge cost of dealing with a nuclear disaster as a private operator -- as highlighted by the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO).

The Fukushima disaster has already cost around 11 trillion yen in compensation and costs for decontamination, reactor decommissioning and countermeasures against contaminated water. Yet the figure is likely to rise further. The national government contributed around 1 trillion yen to TEPCO not long after the disaster, and it has spent additional funds combating contaminated water, but it has not provided other forms of support. Meanwhile, the government has left the issue of its responsibility for the nuclear disaster untouched, even though nuclear power was part of the national energy strategy.

Just after the March 2011 disaster, TEPCO officials warned fellow utility J-Power about the dangers of becoming a nuclear power plant operator. J-Power's first plant, the Oma Nuclear Power Plant, is under construction in Aomori Prefecture.

"It's no good to have a nuclear power plant. If an accident happens, your company will be done for," a TEPCO official told the utility.

Facing a government that has avoided taking direct responsibility for the nuclear disaster though it is empowered to set energy policy, electric companies have been trying to win concessions in that policy. They threaten to obstruct efforts to free up the energy market, resisting the separation of power generation and transmission.

At the same time, utilities hope to amend the Atomic Energy Damage Compensation Law -- which does not limit compensation required of energy companies -- to place the responsibility for paying for a nuclear disaster in the government's hands once the damage reaches a certain level.

However, a senior government economic affairs official argues, "Energy companies have said both now and in the past that 'Nuclear power is cheap.' If that's the case, they should do their work without government help."

The differing stances show that despite the national government steering its policy toward nuclear power, the question of whether responsibility for a nuclear accident falls on the government or energy companies remains clouded.

Similarly, though the government takes a proactive attitude towards reactivating nuclear plants in its basic energy plan, it says decisions to reactivate reactors will be based on Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) standards.

Yet NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka has repeatedly said the NRA will not intervene in societal, popular or government decisions. As such, it is unclear who will give the go-ahead to restart nuclear plants and who will assume responsibility for them.

April 12, 2014(Mainichi Japan)