TEPCO to review the 3 reports on the disaster

July 21, 2012

Tepco to review Fukushima report amid contradictions

Jiji

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120721a4.html#.UArEjaBIwpU

NIHONMATSU, Fukushima Pref. — Tokyo Electric Power Co. next week plans to reassess its final report on the Fukushima nuclear disaster to address contradictions with the final report recently released by an independent Diet panel, a Tepco official said.

 The official, Yoshiyuki Ishizaki, said Thursday in Nihonma tsu, Fukushima Prefecture, that the findings released by the Diet panel formed to investigate the cause of the disaster clash with Tepco's in-house report. The Diet panel effectively said the crisis was man-made, due to a corrupt regulatory system and lack of safety awareness, and not due to a natural disaster.

Another key government committee will announce its own report on the disaster Monday.

Once the second panel's report is released, Ishizaki said Tepco will form a team of in-house legal and technical experts to examine the three reports on the crisis, which was triggered when the March 11 earthquake and tsunami damaged Tepco's aging and poorly protected Fukushima No. 1 power plant.

Tepco needs to correct its own report if mistakes are found during the review process, he said, without specifying when the review would be completed.

Tepco's final report, published June 20, said the meltdown of reactor 1 occurred after its cooling system was knocked out by the tsunami caused by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake on March 11.

As the direct cause of the meltdowns of reactors 2 and 3, the report said the utility was not able to cool the reactors stably because of the deteriorating environment caused by the hydrogen explosion in reactor 1.

The report denied that the 40-year-old power plant was damaged by the earthquake itself.

The Diet panel said in its report July 5 that it could not rule out the possibility that the temblor compromised the plant's key facilities. It suggested a reactor 1 emergency power generator may have broken down in the moments before the tsunami hit.

Ishizaki said he believes the Tepco report findings but added it is the firm's duty to analyze the differences among the reports.

No redress exemption

kyodo

The Tokyo District Court ruled in a lawsuit Thursday that the government's decision not to exempt Tokyo Electric Power Co. from having to pay compensation for nuclear accidents caused by natural disasters is legitimate.

"The government's interpretation of the exemption in an extremely limited way was reasonable to some extent," Judge Masatoshi Murakami said in handing down the ruling.

The suit, filed by an individual investor over the fall in Tepco's share price, focused on whether the state should have applied the exemption to the utility in connection with the Fukushima nuclear disaster triggered by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The law on compensation for nuclear accidents includes a waiver clause stipulating that the government, rather than an atomic plant operator, would pay compensation for damage caused by a nuclear accident resulting from "an unusually huge natural disaster or a social upheaval."

Murakami said: "There are various interpretations (of the clause) and it is difficult to draw a primary meaning."

Given that the purpose of the law is to protect disaster victims, the government's understanding that the exemption should be applicable to absolutely unimaginable situations is reasonable, the judge added. The court rejected a demand for ¥1.5 million in state compensation by the plaintiff.