President and Director General, INSSTakao Matsumura

Our institute was established in March 1992.
The catalyst for the launch was the rupture of a narrow tube in the steam generator of the No. 2 reactor at the Mihama Power Station of the Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. which occurred the year before and resulted in the activation of the emergency core cooling system (ECCS) for the first time in Japan.
When the accident occurred, it was reported as if it were comparable to the Three Mile Island accident in the United States or the Chernobyl accident in the former Soviet Union. As a result, the trust in nuclear power generation has been seriously damaged, and this has caused great concern to the communities in which nuclear power plants are located and to the general public. At that time, the top management of KEPCO realized that “there is a huge gap between the ‘sense of safety’ of electric power companies and engineers and the ‘sense of security’ held by the general public.” We were keenly aware of this. In order to bridge this gap, we must pursue not only engineering safety, but also social safety, and it was decided to establish the Nuclear Safety Systems Research Institute.
In order to achieve this goal, our institute has been actively engaged in research activities based on the basic principle of contributing to the further improvement of safety and reliability of nuclear power generation and to better achieve harmony between society and the environment.
We will continue to pursue and disseminate the results of our research through tireless efforts and challenges, and we will also actively engage in activities as a member of the community.
We look forward to your continued guidance and encouragement.