23 Jul (NucNet): Japanese and Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) officials ignored the risks of a nuclear accident because they believed in the “myth of nuclear safety”, a government panel’s report on the Fukushima-Daiichi accident said today.
“The fundamental problem lies in the fact that utilities, including [plant operator] Tepco, and the government have failed to see the danger as reality as they were bound by a myth of nuclear safety and the notion that severe accidents do not happen at nuclear plants in our country," said the 450-page report.
The report, completed by a government-appointed panel including scholars, journalists, lawyers and engineers, said Tepco was not sufficiently prepared for such an accident or that that natural disasters might lead to large-scale core damage. “Furthermore, Tepco had not taken adequate preparedness for tsunami risks beyond design basis at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power station,” the report says.
The report makes a number of recommendations ranging from measures for preventing accidents to improvements in radiation monitoring.
It says the vulnerability of individual facilities for “various internal and external events” should be identified by comprehensive safety analysis. And it calls on the crisis management system for a nuclear disaster to be urgently reformed.
The report says it became clear through the investigation that the accident was initiated by a natural disaster – an earthquake and tsunami – but there had been “various complex problems” behind the accident including problems with preventive measures and disaster preparedness, on-site emergency responses to the accident, and preventive measures against “the spread of damage outside the nuclear power station”.
“We understand that immediate safety measures are being further detailed and will materialise in the future. But we strongly urge the people concerned to make continued efforts to take really effective steps,” said the panel, chaired by Yotaro Hatamura, University of Tokyo engineering professor.
“Both the government and companies should establish a new philosophy of disaster prevention that requires safety and disaster measures against any massive accident and disaster... regardless of event probability,” the report said.
The report also criticises communications during the crisis and says the government should set up a body to provide information in an emergency to the public “promptly, accurately, and in an easily understandable as well as clear-cut (not misleading) manner”.
This is the second independent report released this month into the Fukushima-Daiichi accident. The first concluded that the accident was the result of “a multitude of errors and willful negligence” by Tepco, regulators and government.
An English summary of the report is online:
http://icanps.go.jp/eng/SaishyuRecommendation.pdf
