The Japanese government announced they will create a new nuclear agency, to better respond to future nuclear disasters.  This after it’s painfully obvious that the current plethora of government agencies, tasked with dealing with the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, have failed.

The latest plan to revamp nuclear regulators involves creating an agency who’s sole job is to act as first responders to any future nuclear accident.  It will be created out of the current Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, and placed under control of the Environment Ministry.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency would continue purely as a regulatory agency.

The new first responder agency would also be responsible for monitoring of radiation levels, and control of radioactive substances.

The current Nuclear Safety Commission would be placed under the Environment Ministry as well, and act as an adviser to the first responders.

Of course the Japanese government still has to vote on the plan, but seeing what’s happening in Japan right now, any politician who’d want things to stay the same is nuts.