May 18,2011
Editorial (excerpts)
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) revised its timetable to bring its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant back under control. Following the revision, the government for the first time published its plan to support those who are struggling as evacuees.
People near the Fukushima plant have been ordered to evacuate and are suffering various hardships. It is a matter of course for the government to provide them with an explanation as to how the government is going to deal with the ongoing nuclear crisis and when they might be able to go back to their communities and begin to restore their lives.
The government issued its timetable in order to dodge public criticism over its cavalier attitude leaving the matter only to TEPCO. However, the government’s timetable is based on the assumption that TEPCO will successfully be able to overcome the Fukushima crisis in accordance with its own projections. This shows that the government’s attitude has remained unchanged.
Even though people are witnessing a deterioration in the situation, TEPCO still believes that the Fukushima reactors will be cooled down as they predicted in the initial assessment. It is doubtful whether work to get the crippled reactors under control will be successful as TEPCO claims.
If the work does not proceed as planned, the government will be required to change its schedule for lifting the ban on entering “caution zones” and removing the soil contaminated by radioactivity. The government’s position of basing its plan on the TEPCO timetable is irresponsible.
The government should carefully evaluate every piece of data regarding the nuclear accident and provide a strategy and perspective to property deal with the situation.
The government should responsibly utilize all the expertise at its disposal to deal with the nuclear crisis, plan to support evacuees’ lives, and decontaminate soil found to have excessive levels of radioactivity.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) revised its timetable to bring its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant back under control. Following the revision, the government for the first time published its plan to support those who are struggling as evacuees.
People near the Fukushima plant have been ordered to evacuate and are suffering various hardships. It is a matter of course for the government to provide them with an explanation as to how the government is going to deal with the ongoing nuclear crisis and when they might be able to go back to their communities and begin to restore their lives.
The government issued its timetable in order to dodge public criticism over its cavalier attitude leaving the matter only to TEPCO. However, the government’s timetable is based on the assumption that TEPCO will successfully be able to overcome the Fukushima crisis in accordance with its own projections. This shows that the government’s attitude has remained unchanged.
Even though people are witnessing a deterioration in the situation, TEPCO still believes that the Fukushima reactors will be cooled down as they predicted in the initial assessment. It is doubtful whether work to get the crippled reactors under control will be successful as TEPCO claims.
If the work does not proceed as planned, the government will be required to change its schedule for lifting the ban on entering “caution zones” and removing the soil contaminated by radioactivity. The government’s position of basing its plan on the TEPCO timetable is irresponsible.
The government should carefully evaluate every piece of data regarding the nuclear accident and provide a strategy and perspective to property deal with the situation.
The government should responsibly utilize all the expertise at its disposal to deal with the nuclear crisis, plan to support evacuees’ lives, and decontaminate soil found to have excessive levels of radioactivity.
