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Safety is a Matter of Highest Priority of Nuclear Power

KADIN-JETRO-BATAN Nuclear Seminar onProspect of Nuclear Electric Power in Indonesia

February 22(Thursday), 2007Jakarta

Shojiro MatsuuraFormer Chairman of Nuclear Safety Commission, Japan

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Introductory Remarks

In this talk, following issues on nuclear power utilization are discussed,z Intention of an expression that Safety is the Highest Priority

z Why this expression is stressed in Nuclear Power Business

z Effort to realize Nuclear Power Safetyz Achievements of Nuclear Power Safety

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??Safety is the Highest Priority

z One of the Most Basic Common Sense in the present world isSafety is the Highest Priority.

z In any modern industry, this concept is placed asa Fundamental Principle.

z The basic reason is based on a modern idea that each peoplehas Fundamental Right to desire Safe and Happy Life.

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Safety is the Highest Priority ?continued?

For example, this Fundamental Right is declared in the Constitution of Japan.All laws of Japan must be established under this Constitutional decision.

According to this fact, the Atomic EnergyBasic Law of Japan legislates Assurance of Safetyand Peace Useof Atomic Power as the Highest Premises

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3. Special Importance of Safety in Nuclear Power Business

z Why Safety is intensively stressed in Nuclear Power Business ?

z The main cause is that public people are concerned about any risk of social disaster resulted from any big nuclear accident.

z A central facility for nuclear power generation is a power reactor, which generates a big amount of radiation and accumulates a huge amount of radioactive materials resulted from its operation. If any big accident occurs and the reactor core is severely destroyed, a large amount of radioactive materials might be released and might cause contingently a big disaster to a wide area. This scenario of risks is the main cause of public concern.

z A concern due to risks and a fact is not identical. Both give a strong influence on public perception.

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4. Risk due to industrial activity and regulation

Any industrial activity that brings any societal risk is prohibited in principle.

Such activity can be permitted under a set of regulatory conditions.

Regulatory conditions should be legally decided under reasonableand objective knowledge based on most modern science and technology. And they should be publicly announced according to principles of fairness.

For getting regulatory permission, societal advantages of an activity should be much larger than estimated societal risk resulted from the activity.

A licensee should follow the regulatory conditions, and regulators should confirm compliance of the licensee through legal examinations. The results of the examinations should be publicized.

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5. Public Perception on Risk Public concern due to a risk is strongly affected by the feature of the risk. If a risk has such following feature, public concern is much increased,Difficulty of understanding, Possibility of big societal disaster, Out of self-control, Unclear effect to future generation, and Intentional concealment.

How less risk is negligible or acceptable to a society depends on the societal condition, feature of an event, generation, and others.

There is an interesting research result on societal risk perception.(Health and Safety Executives, UK)

z Negligible risk: less than one fatal of one million persons per year,

z Unacceptable risk: more than one fatal of one thousand persons per year,

z Acceptable but not negligible: between both above mentioned.(cf. average death probability: 1?2 of one hundred persons per year)

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6. Effort to realize Nuclear Power Safety

A license on construction and operation of a nuclear power reactor can be issued under conditions to assure a required level of low risk.

Most important condition for permission of construction and operation of a nuclear power reactor is that Safety is the Highest Priority.

In order to realize this, the following fundamental principles are kept,

(1) Safety Culture(2) Defense-in-Depth(3) Quality Assurance(4) Matured and/or Proven Technology.

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6. Effort to realize Nuclear Power Safety (continued)

The IAEA has published a series of safety documents based on knowledge and experience obtained in the nuclear developed countries.

Those documents cover a wide range of safety principle and standards on reactor design, construction, operation, maintenance, and examination/inspection.

They are internationally used as basic references of safety activities.

The Safety Convention on Nuclear Power Reactors was concluded among many member countries of IAEA after Chernobyl accident.

According to this convention, member countries open every 3 yearsan international conference to conduct peer reviews of safety level and safety activities of member countries.

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7. Achievement of Nuclear Power Safety At present, (about) 435 power reactors are safely operated in the world and any big accident with a large amount of radioactive release has not occurred in the past except the Chernobyl accident of the former USSR in 1986.

The INSAG/IAEA investigation on the accident indicated clearly that there were essential problems in safety design philosophy and various big invasions against operational rules.

In 1979, TMI-2 reactor accident occurred in the USA but the radioactive release was quite limited without any effect on the surrounding environment.

Main type of present power reactor in the world is Light Water Reactor, namely PWR and BWR. This type of reactor is completely different from the type of Chernobyl reactor in design philosophy, construction, and operation.

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Rubble of Chernobyl-4

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SafetyAchievement of Nuclear Power Reactor(continued)

The present technology of LWRs are well matured in any phases such as design, mechanism, construction, fabrication, material, fuel, operation, maintenance, examination/inspection, and safety evaluation.

The Probabilistic Risk Analysis on LWR shows that the risk of a big accident with a large amount of radioactive release is negligibly small when a LWR is utilized under the following situations,(1) Regulatory system is well established,(2) Managers and workers have been well educated, have

sufficient experience and knowledge, and work rigorously and prudently with good communication environment.

(3) Sufficient resources for safety are continuously supplied.

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8. Concluding Remarks The LWR Technology has been well established and matured. The Safety Principles and Standards are well established internationally.

The Safety of the LWR utilization has been proven through many experiences.

But Complacency due to long term good achievement is most dangerous.

There are many international activities for enhancing and keeping safety.

It is strongly recommended that Indonesia will join in such activities positively.