New standards to ensure safety may doom raw beef dishes

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Are Korean-style yukke raw beef dishes about to disappear from menus?

On Saturday, the government introduced stricter standards for restaurants serving raw beef after the deaths of four persons who ate yukke at restaurants in Toyama and other prefectures.

Some barbecue restaurants may take raw meat off their menus because it would cost more to prepare and prices could triple.

Under the new standards, restaurants will be obliged to heat the meat at 60 C to a depth of one centimeter or more for at least two minutes, and trim it with implements used exclusively for handling the meat.

Many restaurants will be forced to buy heat-treated blocks of meat from meat processors, increasing costs.

Violators of the new standards face such punishments as suspension of business, imprisonment for up to two years or a fine up to 2 million yen.

Shigeru Otaki, 43, who manages a barbecue restaurant in Naka Ward, Yokohama, has decided not to serve yukke raw beef for the time being.

"To meet the new standards, we'd have to increase our capital investment and cut off the portion of meat that had been heated," Otaki said. "If we do that, a plate of raw beef will cost about 4,000 yen, more than triple the current price. We can't offer [such an expensive dish] at our restaurant."

Hironori Ochi, 29, a company employee who visited the restaurant Friday, said: "It's a pity we won't be able to order raw beef. I don't think such strict standards are necessary for good restaurants [like this one]."

A barbecue restaurant in Toyama, which had offered a plate of raw beef yukke at 504 yen that had been discounted from 840 yen in September under the catchphrase "Sayonara yukke," started serving horse meat yukke from Saturday.

Obviously frustrated, the 39-year-old restaurant manager said, "We carried out thorough tests for bacteria and are confident in handling raw beef."

Even under the new standards, a number of restaurants want to keep raw beef yukke dishes on their menus because they are so popular.

A 61-year-old cook at a barbecue restaurant in Koto Ward, Tokyo, said, "We're thinking of offering [yukke] by raising the price by about 500 yen [per plate]."

Under previous regulations, restaurants were allowed to serve raw beef to customers by just trimming the surface of the meat. However, even if these rules were violated, no one was punished.

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New rules 'too strict'

Because of the stringent new rules, Koji Nakai, executive member of All Japan Yakiniku Association, believes yukke dishes will disappear from menus for the time being. "[Under the new standards] the prices of yukke will be double or triple ," he said.

About 1,800 barbecue restaurants are members of the association.

After the new standards were disclosed on Sept. 12, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry received several hundred complaints and inquiries from barbecue restaurants about how the meat should be prepared.

The complaints included: "There's hardly any time to change our methods" and "The standards are too strict."

The ministry distributed documents to prefectural governments Wednesday explaining how the meat should be prepared.

The central government will determine whether the new standards are being observed by the end of the year. It also plans to revise the regulations by Oct. 1 next year to oblige local governments to issue permits to restaurants serving raw meat.

A senior ministry official said, "Many restaurants started offering raw beef when it became popular, even though there was a great danger that the meat contained toxins."

In an appeal for understanding, he said, "Safety must take precedence over a drop in supplies or a price increase."

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Japan reactors to restart when safety assured: trade minister (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan's new trade minister said he expects nuclear reactors idled for routine maintenance to restart once safety is confirmed and local communities give their approval, reflecting Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's view that nuclear power will play a continued role in the country's energy mix.

Yukio Edano made no further comment on the likely timing for reactor restarts, which have been delayed by public concerns about nuclear safety in the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi radiation crisis, threatening power shortages as more reactors go offline for inspections and maintenance.

Edano also told a news conference on Tuesday that safety checks should be done thoroughly and in a way that is easy for local residents to understand.

Edano served as chief cabinet secretary under previous Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who had taken a hard line toward nuclear power and called for more ambitious efforts to boost renewable energy.

The March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which triggered the Fukushima crisis, spurred the government to require utilities to carry out two-stage stress tests to gauge the resilience of nuclear plants to a massive earthquake or other unforeseen events.

"I think one purpose of conducting the stress tests is to make checks transparent and specific, and to explain the results in a way that's easy to understand," Edano said.

He said there was no room for politics in determining the safety of nuclear reactors, but he implied there should be flexibility in determining whether local residents have given consent to reactor restarts, calling for "comprehensive judgments."

Edano said he wanted to avoid mandatory reductions of power use in the winter, and hoped to achieve this by encouraging households and offices to conserve power.

At his inaugural news conference as trade minister late on Monday, Edano said Japan should strive to become a society that does not depend on nuclear power, although he stopped short of calling for an eventual closure of all nuclear power plants.

On the U.S.-led talks on the proposed Transpacific Partnership pact (TPP), Edano said while there was a global push for progress on the pact, Japan must first reach a consensus among interested domestic parties before determining whether to join talks.

Edano replaced Yoshio Hachiro, who resigned after only eight days as trade minister following gaffes related to the Fukushima plant. The trade minister also oversees energy policy.

(Reporting by Risa Maeda and Chikako Mogi; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

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NRC Staff Directed to Set Priorities for Japan Safety Proposals - Bloomberg

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission directed its staff to choose which task-force safety proposals should be adopted in the near term in response to the Japan crisis, resolving a dispute over how to proceed.

Chairman Gregory Jaczko had pressed the commission to act within 90 days on each of 12 recommendations the task force offered in a July report. Several commissioners led by William Ostendorff urged more time to review the proposals.

“The plan we’ve established will require a dedicated effort by our staff and stakeholders, and will require a continued commitment by the commission to see that these recommendations are promptly addressed,” Jaczko said today in a statement.

The NRC panel was charged with developing safety steps after an earthquake and tsunami in March crippled Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant, the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986. A majority of the five-member commission balked at Jaczko’s plan and Ostendorff said on July 28 he had “significant reservations” about swift action, echoing the positions of Commissioners William Magwood and Kristine Svinicki.

Under the plan today, the NRC staff has until Sept. 9 to outline which recommendations the commission should implement “without unnecessary delay,” according to the statement.

By Oct. 3, NRC officials must “lay out all agency actions to be taken in responding to lessons learned from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi accident,” and set priorities for acting on 11 of the recommendations.

The staff has 18 months to consider the task force’s main recommendation that the NRC’s overall regulatory approach be revised, according to the statement.

The task force also recommended requiring plant owners to have at least eight hours of backup power at reactors, provide emergency systems to spray water into pools holding spent fuel and install more reliable venting for reactors similar to those that failed in Japan in March.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Snyder in Washington at jsnyder24@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net

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Japan redesigns nuclear safety agency - CNN International

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant experienced a triple meltdown after a devasting tsunami and earthquake hit Japan.Day-to-day nuclear regulation will be placed under the Environment MinistryCritics have said regulators have been too cozy with Japan's nuclear industryThe decision follows the March nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi

Tokyo (CNN) -- Japan's nuclear safety agency will be placed under the control of the country's Environment Ministry, a top government official announced Monday in a move stemming from the triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

Japanese regulators have been accused of being too cozy with the nuclear industry in the years before the March disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, the worst nuclear accident in a quarter-century. Monday's decision will take the day-to-day regulation of nuclear plants out from under the Ministry of the Economy, Trade and Industry, which has promoted the use of nuclear energy, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

The plan is to merge the existing Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency with the Nuclear Safety Commission, a largely advisory body. The new agency should be up and running by April and "will see to it that everything is done clearly," Edano said.

The agency has been tentatively designated the Nuclear Safety Agency, but Edano said he and other Cabinet members hope to add the word "regulatory" to the name before long.

"This agency will be handling regulation, and that is why regulation should be included in the name," he said.

Japan has launched a sweeping review of nuclear power since the disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, which has displaced more than 100,000 nearby residents. Engineers are still working to restore normal cooling in the three reactors that melted down after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and to pump out and decontaminate an estimated 100,000 tons of water that has pooled in the basements and service tunnels of the plant during five months of emergency measures.

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Japan Cabinet OKs new nuclear safety agency (AP)

TOKYO – Japan's Cabinet has approved a plan to expand the main nuclear regulatory agency and move it to the environment ministry from the trade ministry where it has been criticized as being too cozy with the industry it regulates.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Monday the new agency will also oversee nuclear security, radiation monitoring and crisis management.

The existing agency drew increased scrutiny after the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant suffered melting reactor cores after this year's massive tsunami. The agency was criticized partly for being part of the same agency that promotes nuclear energy.

Establishing the new agency will require parliamentary approval. It is planned for launch next April.

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