Safety is a Matter of Highest

Priority of Nuclear Power

KADIN-JETRO-BATAN Nuclear Seminar on
Prospect of Nuclear Electric Power in Indonesia
February 22(Thursday), 2007
Jakarta

Shojiro Matsuura
Former Chairman of Nuclear Safety Commission, Japan

KADIN #1

Introductory Remarks
In this talk, following issues on nuclear power
utilization are discussed,
Intention of an expression that Safety is the
Highest Priority
Why this expression is stressed in Nuclear
Power Business
Effort to realize Nuclear Power Safety
Achievements of Nuclear Power Safety

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Safety is the Highest Priority

One of the Most Basic Common Sense in the present
world is
Safety is the Highest Priority.
In any modern industry, this concept is placed as
a Fundamental Principle.
The basic reason is based on a modern idea that each people
has
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 Energy Basic
Law of Japan legislates Assurance of Safety and
Peace Use of Atomic Power as the Highest Premises

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3. Special Importance of Safety in

Nuclear Power Business
Why Safety is intensively stressed in Nuclear Power
Business ?
The main cause is that public people are concerned about
any risk of social disaster resulted from any big
nuclear accident.
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.
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 reasonable
and 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)
Negligible risk: less than one fatal of one million persons per
year,
Unacceptable risk: more than one fatal of one thousand persons
per year,
Acceptable but not negligible: between both above mentioned.
(cf. average death probability: 12 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)
(2)
(3)
(4)

Safety Culture
Defense-in-Depth
Quality Assurance
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
years
an 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, TMI2 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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KADIN #11


Rubble of Chernobyl-4

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Safety Achievement 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.

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