Japanese parliamentary investigation finds safety features inadequate.
The Fukushima nuclear disaster was the result of "man-made" failures before and after last year's earthquake, according to a report from an independent parliamentary investigation. The breakdowns involved regulators working with the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. to avoid implementing safety measures as well as a government lacking commitment to protect the public, the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission said in the report.
The March 11 accident, which set off a wave of reactor safety investigations around the world, "cannot be regarded as a natural disaster," the commission's chairman, Tokyo University professor emeritus Kiyoshi Kurokawa, wrote in the report released yesterday in Tokyo. It "could and should have been foreseen and prevented. And its effects could have been mitigated by a more effective human response."
The report dealt the harshest critique yet to Tokyo Electric (9501) and the government. The findings couldn't rule out the possibility that the magnitude-9 earthquake damaged the Fukushima Dai-Ichi No 1 reactor and safety equipment. This is a departure from other reports that concluded the reactors withstood the earthquake, only to be disabled when the ensuing tsunami slammed into the plant.
This finding may have implications for all Japan's atomic plant operators if it leads to tougher earthquake-resistance standards. The operators reported combined losses of 1.6 trillion yen ($20 billion) in the year ended March owing to safety shutdowns of the country's 50 reactors and higher fuel bills when they started up gas and oil-fired plants…
Gordon Edwards tells CTV health and safety were not priorities in Japanese nuclear planning.
© Copyright 2012 Tsuyoshi Inajima, Jacob Adelman and Yuji Okada, All rights Reserved. Written For: StraightGoods.ca
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