Risa Maeda and Linda Sieg Tokyo
Japan’s Fukushima nuclear crisis was preventable and resulted from “collusion” among the government, regulators and the plant operator, an expert panel said yesterday, wrapping up an inquiry into the worst nuclear accident in 25 years.
Damage from a big earthquake on March 11 last year, and not just the ensuing tsunami, could not be ruled out as a proximate cause of the accident, the panel said, a finding that could have serious implications as Japan seeks to bring idled reactors back on line.
The panel also pointed to problems in the response of plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) and then prime minister Naoto Kan, who resigned last year after criticism of his handling of a natural disaster that developed into a man-made crisis.
“The… Fukushima nuclear power plant accident was the result of collusion between the government, the regulators and Tepco, and the lack of governance by said parties,” the panel said in an English summary of a 641-page report.
Regulators, it said, were reluctant to adopt global safety standards that could have helped prevent the disaster in which reactors melted down, spewing radiation and forcing about 150 000 people from their homes, many of whom will never return.
“Across the board, the commission found ignorance and arrogance unforgivable for anyone or any organisation that deals with nuclear power. We found a disregard for global trends and a disregard for public safety,” the panel said.
The panel’s finding that seismic damage may well have played a role could also affect the restart of reactors that were taken offline, mostly for maintenance and safety checks, in the months since Fukushima.
“We have proved that it cannot be said that there would have been no crisis without the tsunami,” Katsuhiko Ishibashi, a seismologist and panel member, said in the report.
Experts say an active fault may lie under Kansai Electric Power’s Ohi plant in western Japan, whose number three unit began supplying power to the grid yesterday. Ohi’s number four unit will come on line later this month after the government approved the restarts to avoid a power shortage.
Many of the shocking details of the disaster, including operator Tepco’s failure to prepare for a massive tsunami and a chaotic response by the utility and government, have already been made public.
Tepco came under heavy criticism in the report, including for putting cost-cutting steps ahead of safety as nuclear power became less profitable over the years.
In its own report last month, Tepco denied responsibility, saying the big “unforeseen” tsunami was to blame, although it admitted that it was not prepared. – Reuters