The Nuclear Regulation Authority has made public the draft of new safety standards for nuclear power plants and plans to put them into force in mid-July. If power companies want to restart nuclear power plants now offline, they must meet the new standards. Currently only the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors of Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture are in operation.
The NRA must make the process of writing the new standards transparent. It also must make the content and the application of the new standards clear-cut so that people's worries about the restart of nuclear power stations will be fully addressed.
After making public the draft, the NRA started collecting opinions from the public. The deadline for submitting opinions is Friday. It is regrettable that the public was given only a month to submit their opinions.