Abstract
There are two established laws governing nuclear power reactors in Japan. One is the Electricity Utilities Industry Law, which regulates the nuclear power reactors, and the other is the so-called “Reactor Regulation Law”, which dually regulates the reactors in some phases. When a graded approach on the regulation of nuclear reactors was adopted, it extended over these two laws and was legislatively imperfect. Such imperfection created problems from the beginning. Also, the original regulatory structures presented by these laws had become obscure during the operation process of the graded regulation. The situation becomes further complicated by the revision of these laws in recent years. It appears that the trait of the regulatory procedural structure of the Electricity Utilities Industry Law has been weakened. As there is a pressing need to review the entire regulatory structure and to propose a unified regulatory system by combining these laws, this paper examines the merits and demerits of combining these laws under a unified regulation.
