Reflecting on the accident at the Fukushima I nuclear power station (NPS), Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is on its way to reform its structure. On September 11, the company set up the Nuclear Reform Monitoring Committee and the Investigation/Verification Project Team, together with the Nuclear Reform Special Task Force to implement reforms under the former two groups.
As consulted by the board of directors, the Nuclear Reform Monitoring Committee provides suggestions from an external point of view, and monitors and supervises the implementation of reforms. Having Dale Klein, a former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), as a member, the committee will hold meetings once in two months starting from early October.
The Investigation/Verification Project Team, which also consists mainly of external experts, will operate in tandem with the Nuclear Reform Monitoring Committee. In light of the main issues raised by survey reports on the Fukushima accident, the team will address challenges and safety enhancement measures.
TEPCO President Naomi Hirose will head the Nuclear Reform Special Task Force, which will lead reforms in such areas as safety culture, safety measures, disaster prevention, risk and crisis management, information disclosure and risk communication.
At a September 11 press conference, TEPCO Chairman Kazuhiko Shimokobe said, “TEPCO will not change unless nuclear power does. Although nuclear reform is the main theme, it is nothing but reformation of TEPCO.”
TEPCO has been making efforts to improve the safety management and quality maintenance systems of nuclear power plants. In the wake of the reactor recirculation pump failure at unit 3 of the Fukushima II NPS in 1989, the company enhanced its safety management system in 1990 and set up an external advisory committee, Nuclear Safety Conference, in 1991. When falsification of trouble records at nuclear power plants was revealed in 2002, TEPCO organized a nuclear safety and quality assurance conference to strengthen its auditing system. Although appreciated by some people, these past organizational reforms may have excessively accelerated the complication and specialization of nuclear organizations.
