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February 28, 2012

Edano advised Kan not to visit Fukushima

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120228_31.html

The morning after last year's March 11th Fukushima nuclear disaster, then Prime Minister Naoto Kan flew to the disaster site by helicopter, although his spokesman advised him not to do so, warning of criticism from the opposition.

A report issued on Tuesday by an investigating panel cites vivid accounts of Kan and others at the prime minister's official residence in the first days of the disaster.

Early on March 12th, Prime Minister Kan took a helicopter ride to personally visit the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. He was frustrated that the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, had not started a venting operation to ease pressure inside the pressure vessel of Reactor Number One.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano tried to talk Kan out of the visit. He said that with such a visit the prime minister would be definitely criticized politically. Then, Kan said to Edano, "Which is more important, facing political criticism, or being able to put a reactor under control?" Edano replied, "If you understand, then please go ahead."

The report also cites a conversation between Prime Minister Kan and Nuclear Safety Commission Chairman Haruki Madarame over a hydrogen explosion that occurred at Reactor Number One shortly after 3:30 PM on March 11th.

Kan asked Chairman Madarame to explain why this happened even though he had told Kan that an explosion would never occur. Madarame simply moaned, burying his head in his hands.

The panel's report quotes Madarame as saying that when he saw the image of the explosion on TV, he immediately knew it was a hydrogen explosion. He said he was stunned and speechless because he had told Kan that morning that there would be no hydrogen explosion.

Later at a quarter to 6 that evening, Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano held a news conference and with no sufficient information available about what had happened, only acknowledged that some sort of explosion had occurred. Edano recalled that it was the most difficult news conference he had ever held.

Before dawn on March 15th, nuclear fuel became exposed and the danger of an explosion was pointed out. TEPCO made an inquiry to the prime minister's official residence, which sounded like a wish to withdraw its personnel from the disaster site.

At around 3:30 AM, Prime Minister Kan and key cabinet ministers met to assess the situation. Kan said that if TEPCO abandoned its job of pumping water into the reactor and if radioactive substances kept spreading into the atmosphere, then the whole of eastern Japan could be in serious trouble.

With that remark by the Prime Minister, the cabinet meeting decided to put his advisor, Goshi Hosono, on standby at TEPCO headquarters.