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2012 March 28 - April 3 TOP3 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

NISA advisors on stress tests paid by nuclear energy businesses

Four advisors to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) which assesses stress tests conducted on nuclear reactors accepted approximately 16 million yen from nuclear energy-related corporations and organizations between FY2006 and FY2010, Akahata revealed.

During the past 5 years, advisory committee member Yamaguchi Akira (Osaka University graduate school professor) received payments totaling 8.24 million yen from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., Nuclear Engineering, Ltd., the Japan Atomic Power Company, and Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, Inc.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a leading maker of nuclear reactors in Japan, also gave 5 million yen to Abe Yutaka (Tsukuba University graduate school professor) and 2 million yen to Okamoto Takashi (Tokyo University graduate school professor).

Narabayashi Tadashi (Hokkaido University graduate school professor) received 1.5 million yen from Nuclear Fuel Industries, Ltd. and Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, Inc. during the same period.

The advisory committee is composed of 11 members who are experts in nuclear power generation and tsunami. Based on its assessment, the NISA reported to the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan (NSC) in the Cabinet Office on February 13 that the result of a stress test on idle reactors in the Oi plant in Fukui Prefecture is “valid”, following a similar validating report on a test result on Ikata nuclear reactors in Ehime Prefecture on March 26.