Japan Press Weekly

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2011 April 20 - 26 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

TEPCO vice-president assumed future loss of power

Japanese Communist Party lawmaker Yoshii Hidekatsu at a Lower House Industry Committee meeting on April 20 revealed that a vice-president of Tokyo Electric Power Co. himself was predicting the possibility of a total loss of power.

Ex-TEPCO vice president Toyota Masatoshi, who was involved in the Fukushima No.1 Nuclear Power Plant construction plan, in 2002 wrote, “A blind point of the Fukushima No.1 plant is its internal power supply system. We have very low confidence in the emergency power generating system,” in an essay commemorating the 30th anniversary of the launch of plant operations.

In 1993, the Atomic Energy Society of Japan also published a study report in its magazine regarding the possibility of severe accidents at nuclear power plants due to a failure in the power supply.

“Nevertheless, the government pushed forward a plan to construct more nuclear reactors without assuming the possibility of ‘severe accidents’,” said Yoshii.

In 2006, Yoshii submitted to the government a written inquiry asking about a possible accident in which fuel rods melt due to an unsuccessful removal of heat. In a written response, the government answered, “We don’t need to consider that possibility.”

In the written response to Yoshii’s written inquiry in 2005, the government also asserted, “It seems unlikely” that severe accidents will occur in nuclear reactors using the pluthermal system. It went on to say, “We make sure that people living near nuclear power plants won’t suffer any severe damage caused by radioactivity even if an accident occurs.”

When Yoshii pointed out these facts, Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) Director Terasaka Nobuaki replied, “The accident this time was beyond what we anticipated.”

Furthermore, in reply to Yoshii’s question, “Which part of the Fukushima plant was damaged by the first earthquake”, Terasaka said, “We can’t find that out yet.”

Yoshii criticized the NISA, saying, “You don’t know the details about the accident, so how can you accept the TEPCO plan to contain the Fukushima crisis?”