On 16 January 2013, the operational status of 47 Japanese nuclear reactors in the IAEA’s Power Reactor Information System (PRIS) was changed by Japan’s Nuclear Energy Safety Organization (JNES) from ‘in operation’ to ‘long-term shutdown’.

The Agency asked its Japanese counterparts for additional clarification and justification for these status changes. The counterparts yesterday advised the Agency that the changes resulted from a clerical error.

At Japan’s request, the status of the 47 reactors has now been restored in PRIS to ‘in operation’.

The IAEA runs the PRIS database with input from its Member States, which own the information provided. The data is entered by government-authorised entities, such as Japan’s JNES, which identify the appropriate status for each reactor.

The Nuclear Energy Department of the IAEA, which runs the PRIS database, is implementing a software upgrade that in future would prevent status changes being entered into the system without the agreement of the system administrators, and would require clear justification from the national counterparts.