Since 9.11, under the name of 'response to terrorism', there has been increasing secrecy in regard to nuclear energy-related information and increasing security for nuclear facilities.
On 15 October 2001 the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center (CNIC) released a statement saying, "Every effort should be made to eliminate the underlying causes of terrorism, such as social injustice." We pointed out that strengthening secrecy and security "will not prevent nuclear disasters, regardless of whether they are the result of terrorism or of nuclear accidents...The only thing to do is to stop using nuclear energy as soon as possible."
On 17 October CNIC held a public meeting entitled, "An aircraft crashing into a nuclear facility: is this really beyond the realms of possibility?" This meeting addressed the problems of the vulnerability of nuclear power plants and nuclear fuel cycle facilities to aircraft, as well as the danger of creating a nuclear police state.
Japan's response to the threat of terror at nuclear facilities since 9.11 is outlined below.
1. Government's response
5 October 2001: A terror response special measures bill, and self defense force law amendment bill were introduced.
8 October 2001: An 'Emergency Terror Response Headquarters' was established within the Cabinet, with the Prime Minister as chairperson. On the same day, at the first meeting a seven point emergency response was decided. One of these points was "strengthened security at important national facilities".
12 October 2001: Key issues requiring action were identified at a meeting of government agencies with responsibilities related to terror response. Measures for the protection of nuclear facilities were strengthened.
29 October 2001: The above two bills (see 5 October 2001) were passed and came into effect.
30 October 2001: An emergency bill to ratify an international treaty designed to prevent the use of bombs by terrorists was introduced. Some of the measures were already planned before 9.11.
9 November 2001: This bill (see 30 October) was passed and came into effect. The bill amended the Reactor Regulation Law . Penalties for terrorism under this law were extended to include all radioactive substances, not just the use of plutonium and uranium.
9 November 2001: A Cabinet Decision proposed a supplementary budget allocation for 2001. Through this around 50 billion yen was appropriated for national terror response. Of that, around 6 billion yen was allocated to respond to nuclear, biological and chemical terrorism.
2. Response to armed attacks etc.
17 April 2002: A bill dealing with armed attacks and bills to amend other related laws were introduced. These were already being prepared before 9.11.
6 June 2003: The above bills (17 April 2002) were passed and came into effect.
24 February 2004: The outline of a bill for the protection of citizens from armed attack was approved by the government. This was passed on 14 June 2004 (see below).
27 February 2004: The first meeting was held of a committee to consider the protection of nuclear facilities in an emergency. This meeting was held under the joint auspices of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) and the Cabinet Secretariat. Besides these two organizations, the committee included representatives from the following: secretariat of the Nuclear Safety Commission; the National Police Agency; the Defense Agency; the Fire and Disaster Management Agency; the Ministry of Education Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy; the Japan Coast Guard; Fukui Prefecture; Saga Prefecture; and the Federation of Electric Power Companies.
14 June 2004: "The Law concerning the Measures for Protection of the People in Armed Attack Situations etc." (Civil Protection Law) was passed (see 24 February 2004 above) and came into effect. This law stipulates the response to a nuclear disaster occurring at the time of an armed attack and the response to a disaster resulting from direct attacks on nuclear reactors, etc..
3 December 2004: The above committee (see 27 February 2004) released a report dealing with the conditions for stopping nuclear reactors in the case of an armed attack and power supply in those circumstances.
4 March 2005: The government proposed guidelines for the protection of citizens giving the Minister for Economy Trade and Industry the authority to order that operation of nuclear reactors be stopped.
3. Strengthening of security at nuclear facilities
Immediately after 9.11: The Minister for Economy Trade and Industry asked the National Public Safety Commission and the Minister for Land Infrastructure and Transport for the cooperation of the National Police Agency and the Japan Coast Guard respectively. On their own initiative, power companies took steps to strengthen nuclear security. (Security was further strengthened after the US started bombing Afghanistan on 7 October 2001.)
19 September 2001: The National Police Agency directed that nuclear facilities be guarded and police now guard nuclear facilities 24 hours a day.
28 September 2001: The Japan Coast Guard sent patrol boats to patrol the areas around nuclear facilities and they now patrol these areas 24 hours a day.
4 October 2001: The National Police Agency announced that if necessary riot police and special forces would be deployed.
8 October 2001: The Ministry for Economics Trade and Industry directed power companies to work closely with the National Police Agency and the Japan Coast Guard in guarding their facilities 24 hours a day. (The National Police Agency said that the reason for strengthening security at nuclear facilities was "because the companies and the local community strongly requested this". However, in regard to the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant in Aomori Prefecture, according to the October 10 issue of 'denki shimbun' (electricity newspaper), "At the request of the Aomori Prefecture police, security was strengthened by stationing police officers at the front entrance.") Also the Japan Coast Guard demanded that companies strengthen their security procedures and strengthen coordination with the Coast Guard by establishing an emergency reporting system. The Coast Guard made the same demand of ships carrying radioactive waste.
25 October 2001: The Police Agency sent 310 riot police to support the Aomori, Fukui and Nagasaki Prefectures' polices forces. However, in the cases of Aomori and Nagasaki, this was not to protect their nuclear facilities. It was to protect US bases.
May 2002: During the soccer World Cup special guard units were set up within the police forces of 12 prefectures to protect nuclear facilities. These were made up primarily of armed riot police. They carried sub-machine guns. Around 1,400 of these were purchased using the post 9.11 supplementary budget. It's unclear what has happened to these units since the World Cup, but it appears that they regroup from time to time, because on 2 April 2003 the Chief of the National Police Agency inspected one of these units at the Kashiwasaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant.
March 2004: The Fukui Prefecture Police Agency announced the establishment of the first permanent nuclear guard unit within the prefecture's riot squad. Riot police numbers were increased to 54, 38 of which are for the nuclear power plant.
1 October 2005: The Japan Coast Guard established Japan's first unit to guard nuclear facilities. The 18 officer unit has one dedicated speed boat and is assigned to the Joetsu regional office to guard the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa NPP.
Many people within the Liberal Democratic Party would like the Self-Defense Forces to be involved in guarding nuclear facilities, but this hasn't happened so far. However, before the events of 9.11 occurred, on 1 February 2001 a new agreement was implemented between the Japan Defense Agency and the National Public Safety Commission in relation to the maintenance of public order. Under this agreement police and the Self Defense Force carried out maneuvers on paper in response to potential terror attacks in Hokkaido (November 2002) and Fukui and Ibaraki (February 2003) Prefectures. These exercises are also being carried out for other prefectures. The purpose of the exercises is to confirm coordination of the protection of nuclear facilities and so on in the event of a landing of armed activists.
4. Protection of nuclear materials
1 April 2004: A nuclear materials protection office was established within the Nuclear Industrial and Safety Agency. Officers from the National Police Agency and the Japan Coast Guard are seconded to this office.
4 August 2004: The first meeting was held of a crisis management working group within the Nuclear Disaster Prevention Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Subcommittee.
27 October 2004: This working group completed a draft report.
13 December 2004: The Nuclear Disaster Prevention Subcommittee approved the report.
5 May 2005: Through amendments to the Reactor Regulation Law, a design base threat was introduced, a system for testing the protection of nuclear materials was established and related secrecy requirements were specified. The protection of nuclear materials changes correspond to the guidelines in IAEA INFCIRC/225/Rev. 4 (Physical Protection of Nuclear Material and Nuclear Facilities). Japanese nuclear facilities are perceived to be very vulnerable to internal threats. The response to these threats has been strengthened. We expect that this will lead to an erosion of human rights. An unprecedented duty of secrecy has been imposed on employees of private companies and there are heavy penalties for violations.
5. Secrecy
October 2001: The Federation of Electric Power Companies amended its guidelines for visits to nuclear facilities. The main changes are as follows:
- a list of visitors must be compiled in advance;
- this list is referred as necessary to the police;
- the section within the company responsible for protecting nuclear materials decides whether or not someone can enter the facility;
- for the time being the central control room is out of bounds;
- information exchange with the police will be maintained, etc.;
- metal detectors have been installed at all nuclear power plants.
A struggle can be seen between the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, which has promoted public relations in support of the pluthermal project (running a campaign to attract 1 million visitors) and the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, which wants to prioritize security. Ironically, both agencies are within the Ministry of Economics Trade and Industry
Power companies have removed photos and diagrams showing the total layout of their nuclear power plants from their pamphlets and web sites. At the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant, media are banned from photographing buildings and models of the whole facility. On 10 June 2004 Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd (JNFL) showed the major processes of the plant to the media, but on the 24 June the Nuclear Industrial and Safety Agency severely reprimanded the company, saying that this went against protection of nuclear materials. Prior to the commencement of uranium trials in December, JNFL demanded that the media censor photos and video footage, but it was forced to retract the demand in response to protests from the media.
