Japan’s government announced Wednesday it is reshuffling the country’s top nuclear regulating body by ousting an outspoken critic of the nuclear industry and replacing him with an ardent supporter of nuclear power.
Critics charge that the move is aimed at fast-tracking Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s plan to restart the country’s nuclear reactors.
“The personnel change is a blatant attempt to prompt resumption of nuclear plants,” Hajime Matsukubo, spokesman the Citizen’s Nuclear Information Centre, told AFP.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority was created in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima meltdown with the stated goal of ensuring that nuclear disasters “never be allowed to happen again.”
The Abe administration announced that, when the terms of the five commissioners are up, two will be replaced. The commissioners are appointed by the prime minister and must be approved by Japan’s legislature.
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