What happens to nuclear power in Asia after Fukushima?

Countries are raising the standards and safety precautions of nuclear power plants, not only in Asia, but all over the world as well.

During the Singapore Electricity Roundtable, Dr. Selena Ng, AREVA’s Regional Director in South-East Asia and Oceania, said that more than 80% of the nuclear worldwide market have already adopted safety precautions.

Ng said that safety authorities are now undergoing safety checks on nuclear power plants’ resistance against environmental hazards. “The plant must be resistant to major hazards. We need to know what will happen if the magnitude exceeds even the worst case scenario. Another factor to consider is the robustness of its cooling capability. It should be able to continue to cool down to a safe shut down. We also need to ensure that there are no hazardous radioactive releases into the environment.”

Countries all over the world have already taken action to improve the safety standards of nuclear power plants.
In Europe, they have already initiated a safety check on 14 countries and 143 reactors. While in France, the ASN nuclear safety authority is doing complementary safety evaluations.

The American Safety Authority is also doing safety checks in the U.S. It issued a report on its first inspections in May, saying 1/3 of power plants were vulnerable to natural disasters.

In Asia, two of Japan’s regulatory bodies, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) and the Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) were merged to achieve comprehensive safety assessments. China has already done an initial survey of plants and it has decided to not give approval for the construction of new power plants.

Inspection missions and peer reviews of power plant will also be further developed. The World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) is aiming to conduct peer reviews of safety in all nuclear power plants in 3 years’ time.