Commission vows to win back trust The Nuclear Safety Commission on Friday expressed regret over its inability to prevent last September's fatal nuclear accident in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture.

"We deeply regret that the Nuclear Safety Commission could not fulfill its duties and we feel a tremendous responsibility over being unable to respond to the public's trust," the commission said in its 1999 white paper, submitted earlier in the day to the Cabinet.

The accident at the JCO Co. uranium processing plant resulted in the deaths of two workers and exposed more than 400 others to higher-than-normal levels of radiation, making it Japan's worst nuclear power-related disaster.