Has Shinzo Abe never heard of the previous (official) investigations?

December 24, 2012

Abe calls for reviewing nuclear crisis at Fukushima plant

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20121224p2g00m0dm004000c.html

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's incoming Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Sunday his government, set to be formed Wednesday, will thoroughly review the cause behind the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

"The root cause of the (nuclear) accident was not fully uncovered so there is a need to make clear whether this was a man-made disaster or not," Abe said during a television program appearance.

Abe, who heads the Liberal Democratic Party, said he will also begin procedures in the next ordinary Diet session to formalize the appointments of current members of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, which was set up in response to the nuclear crisis following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Abe said the government will reassess the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant and consider if nuclear reactors should be restarted or not but did not elaborate when or how the review will be done.

His remarks apparently indicate his government will aim to find out whether the crisis broke out due to human error or structural problems of the plant, with an eye to using the information to deal with the divisive issues of restarting nuclear reactors and building new reactors.

Abe said a decision will be made on the restart for all reactors in the country within three years based on the authority's evaluation.

At present, 48 of the nation's 50 commercial nuclear reactors remain offline due to safety concerns.

Abe is also expected to look again into how the government led by the Democratic Party of Japan and Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, responded to the crisis, political pundits said.

But with regard to the authority's appointments, the LDP chief will back the DPJ's action to appoint five members to the NRA including Chairman Shunichi Tanaka, saying he will take steps toward seeking Diet approval.

The Cabinet, under outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda of the DPJ, agreed last month to deter parliamentary approval of its appointments of Chairman Shunichi Tanaka and the panel's four other members amid opposition to the personnel.