Importance of learning lessons from 3/11

March 10, 2014

Panel heads stress lessons from Fukushima accident

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140310_34.html 

The former heads of 3 panels that conducted separate investigations into the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident have stressed the importance of learning from the disaster. They have called for applying such lessons on the assumption that accidents will happen in the future.

The 3 people who headed the government, Diet and private investigative commissions were speaking in a debate on Monday.

Their discussion came one day before the 3rd anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan. The natural disasters triggered the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Former private commission chief Koichi Kitazawa referred to the country's Nuclear Regulation Authority, or NRA, set up 2 years ago.
Kitazawa said the NRA was made independent from the government as a matter of form. But he added that it remains to be seen if it can continue serving as a body that can ensure the safety of the people without being affected by political and economic factors.

Former government panel chief Yotaro Hatamura talked about recent moves to restart idle reactors.

Hatamura said the essence of the nuclear accident is that people died after being made to evacuate their homes. He stressed the need to check evacuation plans on the assumption that accidents will occur even after the safety at nuclear plants is strengthened.

Former Diet commission chief Kiyoshi Kurokawa pointed out that the lesson of 3 years ago was that the difficulty of expressing personal opinions in businesses and society resulted in problems being overlooked.

Kurokawa said people should not shut their eyes when doubts arise, and instead think about solutions to problems.

Mar. 10, 2014 - Updated 13:29 UTC

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March 8, 2014

Nuclear society says inadequate safety steps led to Fukushima crisis

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20140308p2g00m0dm037000c.html 

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's nuclear academic society said Saturday the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex withstood the impact of the huge earthquake in March 2011 but saw a disaster occur due to inadequate preparations against tsunami and severe accidents.

"We think safety functions were not particularly affected by the earthquake (before tsunami waves hit the plant)...the direct cause of the accident was insufficient measures to deal with tsunami, severe accidents and emergencies," an accident investigation panel of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan said in its report.

The report also said nuclear experts had failed to play their part to improve nuclear safety before the Fukushima crisis, as they "locked themselves in their narrow field of expertise" and were not much aware of the risks associated with natural disasters.

"Tsunami issues were discussed by experts on tsunami, and not enough study was made on what kind of risks they could bring to nuclear power plants," the report said.

The document follows four other nuclear accident investigation reports released from a Diet-appointed panel, Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, and others.

Some controversial issues include whether the March 2011 earthquake could have damaged equipment necessary for ensuring safety and that a small-scale coolant loss may have occurred in the plant's No. 1 unit.

But the academic society's panel denied that such a loss of coolant had occurred, based on its data analysis.

The panel is headed by Satoru Tanaka, a professor at the University of Tokyo. For analysis, the panel said it used data announced by the government and TEPCO as well as information included in other accident investigation panel reports.

In the Fukushima nuclear crisis, tsunami waves that followed a magnitude 9.0 earthquake flooded electrical equipment, leading to a loss of power sources as well as the key reactor cooling systems.

The Nos. 1 to 3 reactors suffered meltdowns, making it the world's worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

March 08, 2014(Mainichi Japan)