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2013 October 16 - 22 TOP3 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

Staff shortage caused radioactive water leaks: TEPCO

Tokyo Electric Power Co. has announced that a staff shortage was the cause of the repeated leaking of radiation-contaminated water from tanks at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

The announcement was included in a report the operator of the crippled plant submitted to the Nuclear Regulation Authority on October 15.

In the report, TEPCO confessed that when five tons of contaminated water leaked due to the failure to join a hose with a tank on October 1, only one person was dealing with the transfer process.

Referring to another case on October 2 when it faultily discharged highly-toxic water into the ocean by injecting too much water into a tank, the utility reported that it skipped a tilt measurement process before the injection.

The report points out as problems lack of work plans, risk management, and communication among overly busy staff workers at the site.

At a Diet deliberation on October 7, Japanese Communist Party House of Councilors member Kurabayashi Akiko stated that TEPCO has an insufficient number of staff at the Fukushima site. She demanded that it cancel preparations for reactivating its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant (Niigata Pref.) and send more personnel to deal with the damaged plant.

Past related articles:
> JCP Shiokawa highlights deception in Abe’s ‘perfectly contained’ remark (September 28, 2013)
> Gov’t intends to discharge toxic groundwater into ocean (September 4, 2013)