By MARTIN FACKLER - Published: August 4, 2011 TOKYO - Prime Minister Naoto Kan removed three top officials in charge of Japanese nuclear energy policy on Thursday, taking aim at the cozy ties between regulators and the power industry that were exposed after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident.
The three officials include Nobuaki Terasaka, the leader of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, the nation's main nuclear regulatory body. The agency has been criticized for allowing inadequate safety measures at the Fukushima plant, including insufficient defenses against the tsunami that was unleashed by a deadly earthquake on March 11.
The agency, which is part of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, has also been accused of trying to manipulate public opinion by planting people at recent town hall-style meetings to speak in support of nuclear power.
The other two officials are Kazuo Matsunaga, the top bureaucrat at the ministry, and Tetsuhiro Hosono, leader of the ministry's energy resources bureau, which promotes the power industry.
It is of course good this is happening, but it shows how interrelated the Government and the Nuclear Industry of Japan is !Would the situation elsewhere be any better ?
Ak Malten, Pro Peaceful Energy Use
Japan's Prime Minister Fires Three Nuclear Energy Officials - IHT
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