Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority has established a team to address safety regulations for ageing nuclear power plants as Tokyo looks to boost its output from reactors.

Industry group the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (Jaif) said the NRA has been discussing a new system of safety regulations since last autumn and at a recent extraordinary meeting decided both on the system’s outline and on draft revisions to a related bill.

Jaif said the NRA’s decisions are related to government plans to revise operating lifetimes for nuclear plants. Last week the NRA approved draft legislation to allow commercial nuclear power plants to operate longer.

The proposed new system, regardless of existing provisions for operating lifetimes, will require a nuclear operator to issue a “long-term facility management plan” at the 30th year of a facility’s operation and every 10 years after that, and to pass a safety examination.