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Fukushima meltdown apology: “It was a cover-up”

Fukushima meltdown apology: “It was a cover-up” thumbnail

The utility that ran the Fukushima nuclear plant acknowledged Tuesday its delayed disclosure of the meltdowns at three reactorswas tantamount to a cover-up and apologized for it.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Naomi Hirose’s apology followed the revelation last week that an investigation had found Hirose’s predecessor instructed officials during the 2011 disaster to avoid using the word “meltdown.”

“I would say it was a cover-up,” Hirose told a news conference. “It’s extremely regrettable.”

TEPCO instead described the reactors’ condition as less serious “core damage” for two months after the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, wrecked the plant, even though utility officials knew and computer simulations suggested meltdowns had occurred.

An investigative report released last Thursday by three company-appointed lawyers said TEPCO’s then-President Masataka Shimizu instructed officials not to use the specific description under alleged pressure from the Prime Minister’s Office, though the investigators found no proof of such pressure.

The report said TEPCO officials, who had suggested possible meltdowns, stopped using the description after March 14, 2011, when Shimizu’s instruction was delivered to vice president at the time, Sakae Muto in a memo at a televised news conference. In a video from that day, a company official rushes over to Muto, showing the memo and telling him that the Prime Minister’s Office has banned the word.

Government officials also softened their language on the reactor conditions around the same time, the report said.

Former officials at the Prime Minister’s Office have denied the allegation. Then-top government spokesman Yukio Edano, now secretary general of the main opposition Democratic Party, criticized the report as “inadequate and unilateral,” raising suspicion over the report by the lawyers seen close to the ruling party ahead of an upcoming Upper House election.

TEPCO has been accused of a series of cover-ups in the disaster, though the report found TEPCO’s delayed meltdown acknowledgement wasn’t illegal.

Hirose said he will take a 10 percent pay cut, and another executive will take a 30 percent cut, for one month each to take responsibility.

The report said Shimizu’s instruction delayed full disclosure of the plant’s status to the public, even as people who lived near the plant were forced to leave their homes, some of them possibly unable to return permanently, due to the radiation leaks from the plant.

TEPCO reported to authorities three days after the tsunami that the damage, based on a computer simulation, involved 25 to 55 percent of the fuel but didn’t say it constituted a “meltdown,” even though the figures exceeded the 5 percent benchmark for one under the company manual.

TEPCO in May 2011 publicly acknowledged “meltdown” after another computer simulation showed significant meltdown in three reactors, including one with melted fuel almost entirely fallen to the bottom of the primary containment chamber.

The issue surfaced earlier this year in a separate investigation in which TEPCO reversed its earlier position that it had no internal criteria regarding a meltdown announcement, admitting the company manual was overlooked.

CBS



11 Comments on "Fukushima meltdown apology: “It was a cover-up”"

  1. PracticalMaina on Tue, 21st Jun 2016 10:12 am 

    10 percent pay cut….for a month…. what an altruistic guy.

  2. PracticalMaina on Tue, 21st Jun 2016 10:14 am 

    They probably shouldn’t get paid since the company they are heading has a structure that is poisoning huge swaths of land and ocean, that is what I would call poor performance, and it is pretty much time to sack everyone who isn’t on the ground actually trying to resolve the situation.

  3. eugene on Tue, 21st Jun 2016 10:52 am 

    Actually, cover ups like this are everywhere. Wander through the landscape of anywhere with resources, including the US, and there it is. But as far as I can tell, few really care as we dream of happily motoring in the future. The real issue is the masses who love to piss/moan desiring solutions which will not impact their lifestyle. I figure the foundation of it all is us. Dreams of ever more on ever less seem to be in fashion.

  4. penury on Tue, 21st Jun 2016 10:55 am 

    It was and IS a cover-up, The U.S. is totally covering up the mass ocean die offs in the Pacific, the death of food fish through-out the Pacific and the damage to humans living along the Pacific Coast line.

  5. Dustin Hoffman on Tue, 21st Jun 2016 12:39 pm 

    It’s George Bush’s fault. Along with all the others that strove for energy independence…all energy sources are dirty ( except perhaps the Sun).
    No free lunch and we will continue to have face the music. Should be interesting.

  6. Go Speed Racer on Tue, 21st Jun 2016 7:01 pm 

    Oh, they apologized. It not enough. They have to write it down on the chalkboard.
    100 times.
    I will not melt down the nuclear reactor
    I will not melt down the nuclear reactor.
    I will not melt down the nuclear reactor.
    I will not melt down the nuclear reactor.
    ……

  7. shortonoil on Wed, 22nd Jun 2016 7:31 am 

    More TEPCO double speak! TEPCO keeps talking about clean-up. They can start that as soon as they find it! TEPCO is pleading to the public; if you see a couple of reactor cores wandering around – “let us know”!

    What a complete dog and pony show – and TEPCO expects the rest of the world to play its part as the dog! This is like handing over the keys to the Death Star to a spoiled, mentally unbalanced five year old.

  8. Kenz300 on Wed, 22nd Jun 2016 9:22 am 

    Nuclear energy is poisoning the planet…………

    5 Years After Fukushima, ‘No End in Sight’ to Ecological Fallout

    http://ecowatch.com/2016/03/05/5-years-after-fukushima/

    Nuclear energy is toxic to people and the planet…..

    7 Top NRC Experts Break Ranks to Warn of Critical Danger at Aging Nuke Plants

    http://ecowatch.com/2016/03/09/nrc-experts-warn-dangers-nuclear/

    Nuclear energy is too costly and too dangerous…..

    How much will it cost to store nuclear waste FOREVER and who will pay for it

  9. Apneaman on Wed, 22nd Jun 2016 11:00 am 

    Flooding, landslides in southwest Japan kill six

    Record-breaking rains hit a wide swathe of the island of Kyushu from Monday night to Tuesday morning, causing flooding and landslides.”

    http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/06/22/471540/Japan-Kumamoto-Abe-Shinzo-Kyushu-NHK

  10. Apneaman on Wed, 22nd Jun 2016 11:02 am 

    At least 22 killed, thousands flee in China floods

    “The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said nearly 268,000 people have been relocated and 324,000ha of crops have been damaged, leading to direct economic losses of 6 billion yuan (S$1.22 billion).”

    http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/at-least-22-killed-thousands-flee-in-china-floods

  11. PracticalMaina on Wed, 22nd Jun 2016 11:06 am 

    Apneaman, you see where 90 people have died in India in the past couple days due to lightning? this is getting crazy quickly, I have heard of 3 deaths this year in the Northeast due to extreme wind, not a hurricane or anything, just freak accidents do to more energy in the wind. A flying umbrella killing someone not in a twister? Really?

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