Tthe one who predicted the worst nuclear disaster in the world since Chernobyl sees another plan.
“There is a very strong possibility that there will be another nuclear disaster in Japan, and the company that runs the largest nuclear power plant here cannot be trusted,” said Toshio Kimura, a nuclear engineer who predicted Japan’s nuclear disaster in 2011 six years before it happened. The daily beast.
The company he refers to is his former employer, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO), which operated the Fukushima plant that suffered a historic nuclear meltdown in March 2011 after a huge offshore earthquake triggered a tsunami that flooded the reactors, releasing mortally. radiation and forcing 160,000 people to evacuate.
One year after the incident, an investigation by a Japanese parliamentary group concluded that, “although it was triggered by these cataclysmic events,” the disaster was “deeply man-made” and can be attributed to a multitude of errors and intentional negligence that left Fukushima plant unprepared for events. ”
Last week, the Japan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) effectively banned TEPCO from restarting the Kashiwazaki power plant – which is one of the largest nuclear power plants in the world – on the coast of the Sea of Japan after the complex was found with major security flaws. . which could make it a target for terrorists.
Inspectors found 16 locations where unauthorized entry to the plant was possible – and a cover attempt to start. While the utility company reported some of the defective equipment to the government, they lied about the backup systems that should have corrected the problem.
“It’s just another example of this company covering up the wrong facts, as always. It can only be said that [TEPCO] he is in no way qualified to operate a nuclear power plant, ”Kimura said.
In 2005, after retiring from the company, Kimura wrote in an article that “if [Fukushima] the factory is hit by a tsunami, the pumps are going to use seawater as a coolant and emergency power is likely to be lost. And, as a result, there will be a collapse of the reactor core. “His prediction came true in 2011.
“I’m fucking with us?”
– Toyoshi Fuketa, President of the ANR.
In Kimura’s new book How nuclear energy will destroy the nation, points out that TEPCO ‘s persistent coverage has led to nuclear safety regulations that are fundamentally flawed. It is now clear that Japan’s nuclear authority agrees with him.
After obtaining preliminary approval for the opening of certain units, the utility company hopes to restart the Fukushima nuclear power plant as early as this year. Last week’s announcement served as a de facto order to suspend operations until “the company reaches a state where a self-sustaining improvement can be expected,” ANR said. The restart would have increased the company’s earnings by about $ 950 million a year.
At a news conference on the TEPCO plant earlier this year, NRA President Toyoshi Fuketa, while discussing the company’s failure to take effective alternative measures to deal with security concerns, launched an angry tirade: “A was it dishonesty? he said. “Did they realize the problem and do nothing? Is there a problem with their technological skills? I’m just fucking with us? ”
Although authorities have eventually derailed TEPCO’s immediate nuclear plans, experts say Japan’s nuclear dangers are far from fixed.
“TEPCO lied and falsified crucial safety data while operating nuclear power plants. A delay of about a year is a slap in the face for a company that has misled regulators and systematically changed safety, “Jeff Kingston, a professor at Temple University in Tokyo who researched the nuclear crisis, told The Daily Beast. of Japan for over a decade.
“He will receive approval once he avoids being dragged to his feet,” he added.
The Kashiwazaki plant has become a symbol of TEPCO’s ineptitude and the dangers of nuclear energy in an island country where earthquakes are frequent. Japan is located in the “Ring of Fire” – a region around much of the Pacific Ocean, where volcanic eruptions and frequent earthquakes are common. Building nuclear reactors in Japan is a bit like building wind turbines from razor blades and rotten wood in the US tornado alley. It’s just not the best place to do it.
But today, there are four more nuclear reactors operating in four Japanese prefectures – two in Fukui, one in Saga and one in Kagoshima – and all are affected by safety issues, such as failure of coolant pumps, steam leaks and inappropriate anti-terrorism. measures.
The Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO), which operates two of its nuclear power plants, is at the center of a corruption scandal involving massive bribes and rewards to and from a city official over three decades. Late last year, the Osaka district court ruled that two reactors at the Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui were vulnerable to a major earthquake, despite being approved to restart by the NRA. Last year, the KEPCO plant in Takahama had to suspend operations at two nuclear reactors after failing to build adequate counter-terrorism facilities.
The Genkai plant in the Saga, operated by Kyūshū Electric Power Company, has also suffered a number of problems since it was reactivated in March 2018, including steam leaks and malfunctioning cooling pumps. Last month, a local court rejected a lawsuit by residents to stop production, ruling that the plant was sufficiently safe from volcanic and seismic activity under the new guidelines.
Japanese nuclear power plants have long been known for poor security and have often been provided with labor by organized crime groups before and after the Fukushima nuclear accident. Even now, background checks are not mandatory. The situation is so dire that two former prime ministers from rival parties held a joint press conference in March this year, urging Japan to give up nuclear power. The majority of Japanese citizens seem to share their vision, 53% opposed the restart of the country’s nuclear reactors.
But this is no longer Japan’s only problem. Last week, the government announced that within two years, Japan would release radioactive waste still spilling from its ocean from the 2011 nuclear accident. Although officials offered assurances that the water would be safe, they did not mention that much of it On-site “treated water” contains lethal levels of other radioactive materials.
What happens to the people of Japan and the countries that share their ocean when the next nuclear accident happens? It may just be an earthquake and neither TEPCO nor the government that should regulate them have promising experience when it comes to nuclear power management.
Ten years after the Fukushima incident, TEPCO is still cleaning up the disaster and pouring tons of seawater into reactor debris every day to cool it. It will take decades for the plant to be taken out of service, leaving a disaster waiting to happen.
The old Japanese nuclear power plants are time bombs waiting to disappear. Even if terrorists do not stumble through lax security and steal materials for a dirty bomb, mother nature and entropy can do the job for them.