Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2012 May 16 - 22 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

Ex-METI official at Diet hearing on nuclear accident: I have no recollection

A former top bureaucrat of the Industry Ministry repeated that he has no recollection in response to questions from an investigation panel on the Fukushima nuclear accident held in the Diet on May 15.

He is Matsunaga Kazuo, who served as the vice minister of economy, trade and industry until August last year.

Asked if the ministry’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) discussed the possible impact of a tsunami on domestic nuclear power plants following the 2004 Sumatra quake and subsequent tsunami, Matsunaga answered, “I don’t remember.” He was the NISA director in 2004.

In answer to a question in regard to how he dealt with the government’s introduction of stress tests on nuclear reactors last year, he said that he had no knowledge about the tests at that time.

Matsunaga repeatedly answered that he has “no recollection” in response to other questions regarding the process of injection of seawater into the crippled Fukushima reactors, government subsidies given to municipalities which agreed with the introduction of “pluthermal” technology, and measures taken by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) after the 9.11 terrorist attacks under the assumption of a full power loss at nuclear reactors.