Report on the findings of the Nuclear Reform Monitoring Committee to the Board of TEPCO on the progress of the Nuclear Safety Reform Plan

December 1, 2014

Mr. Fumio Sudo, Chairman

Tokyo Electric Power Company, Incorporated (TEPCO)

Nuclear Reform Monitoring Committee Results of Monitoring the Progress of the Nuclear Safety Reform Plan

-Report on the findings of the Nuclear Reform Monitoring Committee to the Board of TEPCO on the progress of the Nuclear Safety Reform Plan-

During the 7th Nuclear Reform Monitoring Committee meeting held today, this committee received a report on the progress of nuclear safety reform from TEPCO. Over one and a half years has passed since TEPCO created the nuclear safety reform plan during which time definitive progress has been made in regard to nuclear safety reform, however we propose the following in order to further accelerate these efforts.

Nuclear Safety Culture

• It is vital that TEPCO permeates safety culture throughout the entire organization, from upper management to first line managers in the field, and aims to constantly maintain higher standards. In pursuit of this goal, it is evident that TEPCO has commenced activities to compare and assess the behavior and best practices of organizations and their employees that exhibit the world’s highest level of nuclear safety.
• TEPCO has drafted “Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for quantifying the progress of nuclear safety reform” as recommended by this committee. It was reported that going forward, TEPCO will quickly finalize the KPIs based on the opinions of experts and workers in the field, quantify current progress, set goals and formulate a schedule to achieve these goals. KPI itself is not the objective, but an important means to achieve the objective, and we expect TEPCO to follow through with this initiative and provide a progress report during the next committee meeting.

Nuclear Safety Oversight Office

• The Nuclear Safety Oversight Office engages in the multifaceted and vigorous monitoring of TEPCO’s nuclear safety-related activities and offers advice to the Board of Directors as appropriate. The Board of Directors instructs management to make improvements based on this advice and periodically confirms the status of progress of these efforts thereby enhancing nuclear safety governance, culture and performance.
• However, out of the advice offered by the Nuclear Safety Oversight Office, there is still room for improvement and development in regard to items such as nuclear safety assurance and training, so further effort is required in regard to this and other matters. A report on further progress is expected to be heard at the next committee meeting.

Communication

• The Social Communication Office and risk communicators are making effort to communicate in ways that consider the parties receiving the information, such as using easy-to-understand visuals (photographs and CG animation etc.) to effectively convey complex technical information to siting community.
• TEPCO is providing information more timely and with better accuracy, particularly in connection with unexpected events and it is also conducting crisis communication drills such as mock press conferences.
• In regards to international communication TEPCO is conveying information on the lessons learned from the Fukushima nuclear accident and the progress of decommissioning and decontamination at Fukushima Daiichi, as well as visiting the embassies of various nations in Japan to provide briefings on these issues.
• Communication during times of normalcy as well as during times of emergency has improved from the perspectives of transparency, speed and ease-of-understanding, but the committee would like to see further improvement as well as an external assessment by a third party.

Fukushima Daiichi

• The completion of spent fuel removal from the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 is a big step forward.
• Work to remove the Unit 1 building cover is being done carefully by implementing radioactive substance dispersion prevention measures and monitoring mechanisms that reflect the lessons learned from the removal of debris from Unit 3 during which there was a dispersion of dust containing radioactive substances. Contaminated water management is improving, such as by performing root cause analysis of troubles that have occurred to date and making efforts to improve/enhance operation, but further effort and improvement is required.
• “Reactor decommissioning” differs from “commercial reactor operation” and it is a completely new challenge with which TEPCO has little experience. With the awareness that there will be many difficulties to overcome in the future this committee would like TEPCO to strive to reduce risks associated with the entire site while prioritizing “safety” over “schedule”.

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa

• At Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station safety measures based on the lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi accident are being steadily implemented. The fact that emergency response training now incorporates various scenarios and is being implemented jointly with external parties as suggested by this committee is a big step forward.
• This committee hopes that training details and implementation methods will continue to be revised while TEPCO repeatedly implements training, identifies problems and makes improvements to ensure that training is even more effective, and that the status of these efforts will be conveyed both within and outside of the company.

This committee will continue to adequately communicate with the Board of Directors and upper management as necessary in regard to the status of TEPCO reform efforts and disclose its findings to the public.

Ends