Evacuees from the Japanese town of Okuma walk toward an event to

mourn those killed by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami,

during a brief visit to the  Fukushima Prefecture exclusion zone, on the

one year anniversary of the disaster, March 11

 

 

Too Nippo Shimbun, Japan

U.S. Transcripts on Fukushima ‘Shame’ Japanese Leadership

 

"A clear disparity can be seen between the United States, preparing for the worst and prioritizing the saving of lives, and Japan, underestimating the danger. In life threatening circumstances, hackneyed excuses about 'falling behind' or 'meeting unexpected difficulties' do not suffice. … According to internal NRC transcripts, the Japanese government initially refused assistance from the U.S. In other words, there is a possibility that to protect the nation’s prestige, the government worsened the crisis. It should be ashamed.”

 

EDITORIAL

 

Translated By Ai Ishii

 

March 9, 2012

 

Japan - Too Nippo Shimbun - Original Article (Japanese)

The number of displaced and homeless: One way to measure the catastrophe. NEWSCLICK INDIA: One year since Fukushima, world faces a 'nuclear chill,' Mar. 15, 00:13:28

In response to multiple Freedom of Information Act requests, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has released about 3,000 pages of phone transcripts from the immediate aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

 

The transcripts include automated recordings of conference calls held during the first ten days of the catastrophe, from March 11 to March 21, 2011.

 

In sharp contrast, it emerged in January that the ten Japanese agencies charged with dealing with the accident, including the Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters, failed to keep any minutes at all of their meetings.

 

The fiasco casts light on the widening gap between America’s belief that keeping records and investigating matters where necessary are a matter of course for any public body, and Japan’s incapacity to follow through with even standard procedures. This has exposed Japan’s naiveté when it comes to risk management.

 

The Japanese government’s policy of recovering minutes with the help of the notes and recollections of participants is obviously inferior to actually having the original records; notes often contain misinterpretations and unfortunately, memories fade.

 

Are Japanese politicians and bureaucrats incapable of learning from history and the mistakes of the past? And if they intentionally kept no records to cover up their failings, it is criminal.

 

America’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission is an independent agency created by Congress to regulate nuclear power plants through licensing, inspecting, and other activities.

 

When the Fukushima Daiichi accident occurred, on the following day, the NRC fielded about twenty specialists, who provided technical advice to the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company [TEPCO] on how to cool nuclear reactors and prevent hydrogen explosions.

The NRC transcripts are revealing. Five days after the accident, its specialists recognized the gravity of the situation, commenting that “in the worst case scenario, three nuclear reactors may go into meltdown.”

 

[Editor’s Notes: All NRC quotes are translated].

 

Again, note the difference in tone to that of the Japanese government, which held off acknowledging even the possibility of a nuclear meltdown.  

 

 

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Similarly, despite a succession of explosions in buildings housing the reactors, TEPCO announced that the nuclear containment vessels were “functioning normally.” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano stated that, “there probability is low that large quantities of radioactive substances have been dispersed,” so evacuation orders were limited to a radius of 12 miles [20 kilometers].

 

On the other hand, on day six, the NRC had already decided that they did not “agree with the Japanese government, and would advise U.S. citizens living within a 50 mile radius of the Daiichi plant [80 kilometers] to evacuate.”

 

From just these few examples, a clear disparity can be seen between the United States, preparing for the worst and prioritizing the saving of lives, and Japan, underestimating the danger of the situation. In life threatening circumstances, hackneyed excuses about “falling behind” or “meeting unexpected difficulties” do not suffice.

 

A protester rallies at the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the

crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a year after the monumental disaster,

March 11.

 

The Investigation Commission on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident, a non-governmental organization, published a report last month heavily critical of the government’s initial response, calling it “unprepared, with a high risk of exacerbating the situation through needless confusion.”

 

According to the internal NRC transcripts, the Japanese government initially refused assistance from the United States. In other words, there is a possibility that to protect the nation’s prestige, the government worsened the crisis. It should be ashamed.

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