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The Transparency of Nuclear Regulatory Activities

Tokyo and Tokai-Mura, Japan, 22-24 May 2007

Organised in collaboration with the Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organisation

The NEA Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA) Working Group on Public Communication of nuclear regulatory organisations (WGPC) held a workshop on the transparency of nuclear regulatory activities in collaboration with the Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) and the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organisation (JNES). The workshop was held on 22-24 May 2007 in Tokyo, Japan and included an interaction session with local stakeholders in Tokai Mura on the last day.

The main purpose of the workshop was to provide the staff of nuclear regulatory organisations responsible for public communication with the opportunity to share information, practices and experiences and to discuss developments, progress and techniques in the area of nuclear regulatory communication with the public. Particular emphasis was put on the transparency of nuclear regulatory activities.

The objectives of the workshop were as follows:

  • to develop a common understanding of stakeholders' expectations regarding transparency in nuclear regulatory activities;
  • to share practices of implementing and developing transparency in nuclear regulatory activities;
  • and to share experience of how the development of transparency affected the regulator.

In addition to sharing practices and experience, the workshop contributed to the identification of important public communication issues for nuclear regulatory organisation.

The results of the workshop will be documented in a proceedings, which will include a summary and conclusions. These proceedings can be used by member countries in the context of their regulatory responsibility. The proceedings will also serve as a valuable reference in this field.

Background

A first workshop was held in Paris, in December 2000, which addressed the prerequisites for a nuclear regulator to develop and maintain the confidence of the public in its activities. The main outcomes of this workshop can be summarised as follows:

  • public communication should be considered a key function;
  • a necessary condition for being trustworthy is to be well known;
  • efficient communication channels are needed;
  • good communications is information transfer both in and out an NRO;
  • information must be easily available to the public;
  • public communication is a joint effort by all regulatory body staff members;
  • lessons can be learnt from other fields;
  • lack of harmonisation between countries could destroy trust.

This latter observation was one of the main reasons for the CNRA creating the WGPC.

The WGPC organised a second workshop in Ottawa in May 2004 which addressed the possible ways for building, measuring and improving public confidence in the regulator. Although it was found that cultural differences between the countries are large, and that similar means for communication are not effective everywhere, a number of common principles were identified that can be recommended to all regulators.

Among these were the following:

  • to use any appropriate and available means to make the regulator well known;
  • to issue news releases promptly and be out in front of the public whenever the need for information arises;
  • to produce messages which are understandable by the target audience;
  • to make experts available to answer any questions;
  • to measure the confidence of stakeholders in the NROs;
  • to stay out of energy policy debates and issues;
  • and to be seen to be independent from the licensees and to be honest and transparent.

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Last updated: 13 December, 2007

 

 

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