Inadequate preparation?

 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)