JAPAN: The head of Tepco's new internal panel says the company 'blew it' on nuclear plant safety, admitting for the first time last year's nuclear crisis was avoidable

Record ID: 466638

  • Title: JAPAN: The head of Tepco's new internal panel says the company 'blew it' on nuclear plant safety, admitting for the first time last year's nuclear crisis was avoidable
  • Date: 14th October 2012
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (OCTOBER 13, 2012) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF TOKYO ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY (TEPCO) HEADQUARTERS SIGN READING IN JAPANESE 'TOKYO ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY' FORMER HEAD OF U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION AND CHAIRMAN OF TEPCO'S INTERNAL NUCLEAR REFORM PANEL, DALE KLEIN, ENTERING CONFERENCE ROOM AT TEPCO HEADQUARTERS KLEIN TALKING DURING INTERVIEW KLEIN GESTICULATING WITH HAND (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER HEAD OF U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION AND CHAIRMAN OF TEPCO'S INTERNAL NUCLEAR REFORM PANEL, DALE KLEIN, SAYING: "It's a normal process when anyone makes a mistake. The first stage is denial, the second stage is probably blame others. I think it just took a while for it to really soak in that they understand they blew it." MORE OF KLEIN TALKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER CHAIRMAN OF U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION AND CHAIRMAN OF TEPCO'S INTERNAL NUCLEAR REFORM PANEL, DALE KLEIN, SAYING: "The operator should have known if certain things happened, they vent; if certain things happened, they add sea water. I can assure you in the United States, if they had an issue of reactor cooling or the core was about to become uncovered, the operators would not call the CEO of the company and they certainly would not call the President of the United States and ask could they do that. They would do it." MORE OF KLEIN TALKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER CHAIRMAN OF U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION AND CHAIRMAN OF TEPCO'S INTERNAL NUCLEAR REFORM PANEL, DALE KLEIN, SAYING: "Tepco made mistakes, the regulatory made mistakes, the government made mistakes. But at the end of the day, the company that was responsible for running that plant safely was Tepco."
  • Embargoed: 29th October 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Business,Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVA1WQYSL17Q3P2VRI0ZFKT86N99
  • Story Text: Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) "blew it" on nuclear safety preparations and was responsible for last year's nuclear crisis, the head of an internal scrutiny committee at the Fukushima Daiichi plant operator said on Saturday (October 13).
    Tepco admitted for the first time on Friday (October 12) that the crisis following last year's quake and tsunami was avoidable, reversing the previous management's view that the disaster was unavoidable due to an unexpected force of nature.
    "The first stage is denial, the second stage is probably blame others. I think it just took a while for it to really soak in that they understand they blew it," said Dale Klein, a former head of the U.S. nuclear watchdog and chair of an independent advisory body tasked by Tepco to carry out internal reform of its controversial nuclear section.
    The Fukushima Daiichi plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, was hit on March 11, 2011 by a massive earthquake and tsunami that swamped its backup power and cooling systems, resulting in meltdowns of three of its six reactors.
    About 150,000 people were forced to flee as radioactive materials spewed, some never to return.
    The scrutiny committee's draft nuclear reform plans, released on Friday, singled out Tepco's failure to prepare for meltdowns in the event of a disaster.
    It was possible to take action in regard of tsunami defence based on the company's earlier tsunami evaluations and it was also possible to diversify safety systems by referencing severe accident measures taken in other countries, the draft said.
    "The operator should have known if certain things happened, they vent; if certain things happened, they add sea water," Klein told Reuters.
    "I can assure you in the United States, if they had an issue of reactor cooling or the core was about to become uncovered, the operators would not call the CEO of the company and they certainly would not call the President of the United States and ask could they do that. They would do it."
    Tepco, struggling under huge costs for compensation, cleanup and decommissioning, has since replaced top management with Chairman Kazuhiko Shimokobe, a lawyer who had crafted a compensation scheme for disaster victims, and President Naomi Hirose.
    "Tepco made mistakes, the regulators made mistakes, the government made mistakes. But at the end of the day, the company that was responsible for running that plant safely was Tepco," Klein said.
    Tepco was nationalised earlier this year with a 1 trillion yen ($12.7 billion) injection of public funds in exchange for a turnaround plan, that includes restarting the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, northwest of Tokyo, as early as in April 2013.
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