Three university professors on a government task force to draw up new nuclear power policy guidelines received substantial cash donations from the nuclear power industry and related companies or organizations.
The donations totaled 18.39 million yen ($240,000) over a five-year period through fiscal 2010.
The three are Satoru Tanaka of the University of Tokyo; Akira Yamaguchi of Osaka University; and Hajimu Yamana of Kyoto University. They received 4 million yen, 8.24 million yen and 6.15 million yen, respectively.
The funds were donated with the caveat that the money be used to support their activities, which in itself is not illegal.
Although the three men denied being influenced by the donations, some members of the panel were not so sure.
The task force, called Shin-Taiko Sakutei Kaigi (Conference to work out new outline), was set up in the Cabinet Office’s Atomic Energy Commission in November 2010. It is now tasked with drawing up the government’s basic nuclear power policies in the aftermath of the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in March 2011.
Discussions have focused on how the new outline should reflect the government’s overall commitment to lessening the nation’s reliance on nuclear power, specifically by reducing the number of reactors in operation.
According to the secretariat for the Atomic Energy Commission, the academics were picked for the task force because of “their professional knowledge on safety and other issues.”
It turns out that they all have close links to electric power companies and nuclear power plant makers.
They acknowledged having received the donations, but said their input at task force meetings was not swayed by the amounts.
The task force has 28 members, of whom five are from the Atomic Energy Commission. One of them is Shunsuke Kondo, its chairman. Kondo is a former director of the University of Tokyo’s research center on nuclear power.
The panel is expected to work out a new outline on nuclear energy policy by August.
The Asahi Shimbun requested information on the donations from the universities, and under the terms of information-disclosure, received figures for the five years up to fiscal 2010.
The companies or organizations that made donations are: Electric Power Development Co., which is now constructing the Oma nuclear power plant in Aomori Prefecture; Japan Atomic Power Co., which owns nuclear power plants in Ibaraki and Fukui prefectures; nuclear power plant makers of Hitachi Ltd., Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy Ltd. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.; Genshiryoku Kondankai (Atomic forums) in Kansai and Tohoku, which are regional organizations of the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum Inc., an industry group that consists of nuclear power-related companies and organizations; and Nuclear Engineering Ltd., a group company of Kansai Electric Power Co.
Of the 6.15 million yen in donations to Yamana, 500,000 yen was provided by Kansai Genshiryoku Kondankai in February 2011 after he became a member of the government’s task force.
According to the minutes of a task force meeting held last Oct. 3, a member, who is not an expert on nuclear power, said, “It is the consensus of most of the (Japanese) people to reduce dependence on nuclear power.”
At this juncture, Tanaka asserted that it was vital to “consider energy policies calmly from a long- and mid-term perspective.”
Yamaguchi remarked: “Many safety measures have been taken in response to the (nuclear) accident in Fukushima. The safety of the newest reactors has improved.”
The theme of the task force’s discussions in November was nuclear fuel recycling, in which plutonium is extracted from spent nuclear fuel to be reused as nuclear fuel.
In the meeting, a member said, “I do not understand why the government does not reflect on this program as it has clearly failed.”
Yamana chimed in immediately after that, saying: “Nuclear power is an important energy that supports Japan. The development of fast(-breeder) reactors (that use spent nuclear fuel for recycling) should be continued.”
The donations to the three professors were given ostensibly to promote their research activities. When companies and organizations make such donations to universities, they invariably designate the intended recipients.
Professors are required to tell university authorities how they spend the money. However, they are under no obligation to do so to the companies or organizations that provided the funds.
The Atomic Energy Commission does not require members of the task force to report donations they have received from companies or organizations.
Another member of the task force, Hideyuki Ban, a co-representative of the nonprofit Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center, commented: “All three professors are experts (on nuclear power), but they only made remarks in favor of nuclear power generation. It was as if no (nuclear) accident had occurred (in Fukushima Prefecture).”
(This article was written by Satoshi Otani and Yusuke Nikaido.)
– from ajw.asahi.com