The government's nuclear energy report for 2004 is a dismal reminder that public confidence in nuclear safety remains low. The report, prepared by the Atomic Energy Commission, follows the accident last August in which five workers died because of exposure to bursts of superheated steam from a ruptured tube at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s (Kepco) nuclear plant in Mihama, Fukui Prefecture.
The white paper, titled "Toward Securing Understanding and Trust at Home and Abroad," stresses the obvious: Accurate analyses of the causes of accidents, explanations of safety measures and risks, and repeated dialogues with residents are essential to the resumption or promotion of nuclear-energy activities. The title is a veiled admission that confidence-building efforts have not made much progress.
Public trust in the nation's nuclear power program has been badly shaken not only by the Mihama accident but also by a number of earlier accidents, including a coolant leakage at the "Monju" prototype fast-breeder reactor in 1995 and an accidental critical-mass reaction at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, in 1999.