Man who predicted Fukushima, the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, sees coming again

The who predicted the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl sees another threat.

“There is a very strong possibility that there will be another nuclear disaster in Japan, and the company that operates the largest nuclear power plant here can not be trusted,” said Toshio Kimura, a nuclear engineer who conducted the Japan nuclear disaster in 2011. predicted six years before it happened. The Daily Beast.

The company he is referring to is his former employer, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO), which operated the Fukushima plant, which suffered a historic nuclear outbreak in March 2011 after a major earthquake abroad called for a major earthquake. caused a tsunami that flooded its reactors. radiation and forcing 160,000 people to evacuate.

A year after the incident, an investigation by a Japanese parliamentary panel concluded that, although the disaster was caused by these catastrophic events, it was “deeply man-made” and could be attributed to a multitude of mistakes and intentional negligence. who left the Fukushima. plant unprepared for the events. ”

Last week, the Japanese Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) effectively banned TEPCO from restarting its Kashiwazaki plant – one of the largest nuclear power plants in the world – on the coast of the Sea of ​​Japan after it was found that the complex was riddled with major safety deficiencies . it could make it a target for terrorists.

Inspectors found 16 places where unauthorized access to the factory was possible – and an attempt to cover up. While the utility company reported the defective equipment to the government, they lied about the backup systems that had to fix the problem.

‘This is just another example of this company covering up misconduct, as always. It can only be said that [TEPCO] is in no way qualified to run a nuclear power station, ”Kimura said.

In 2005, after retiring from the company, he wrote in an article that ‘if the [Fukushima] hit by a tsunami, the pumps must use seawater as a coolant, and emergency power is likely to be lost. And as a result, the reactor core will collapse. “His prediction came true in 2011.

In Kimura’s new book How nuclear energy will destroy the nation, he points out that TEPCO’s continued cover-up has led to core safety regulations that are materially flawed. It is now clear that the nuclear authority of Japan agrees with him.

After the utility company obtained preliminary approval for the opening of certain units, it hoped to restart the nuclear power plant in Fukushima as early as this year. However, the announcement last week serves as a de facto order to suspend operations until ‘the company reaches a state where self-sustaining improvement can be expected’, the NRA said. Starting again, the company’s earnings would increase by about $ 950 million a year.

During a press conference on the TEPCO plant earlier this year, NRA chairman Toyoshi Fuketa, during a discussion of the company’s failure to take effective alternative measures to address safety issues, began in a furious tirade: “Was it dishonesty? ” he said. ‘Did they realize the problem and do nothing? Is there a problem with their technological prowess? Are they just fucking with us? ‘

Although authorities are finally derailing TEPCO’s immediate nuclear plans, experts say the nuclear threats in Japan have not been identified for a long time.

“TEPCO lied and falsified essential safety data as long as it operates nuclear power plants. A year or so of delay is a slap in the wrist of a company that misleads regulators and systematically shortens security, ‘said Jeff Kingston, a professor at Temple University in Tokyo who has been discussing the nuclear crisis in Japan for more than a decade of investigation, told The Daily Beast.

“It will get approval as soon as it avoids shooting itself in the foot,” he added.

The Kashiwazaki plant has become a symbol of TEPCO’s disability and the dangers of nuclear power in an island country where earthquakes occur frequently. Japan is located in the ‘Ring of Fire’, an area around the edge of the Pacific Ocean, where volcanic eruptions and frequent earthquakes occur frequently. Building nuclear reactors in Japan is a bit like building wind turbines made from razor blades and rotting wood in the tornado alley of the USA. Just not the best place to do it.

But today, there are still four nuclear reactors in four Japanese prefectures – two in Fukui, one in Saga and one in Kagoshima – and all have been plagued by security issues such as faulty coolant pumps, steam leaks and inadequate anti-terrorism. measures.

The Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO), which operates two of the nuclear power plants, is at the center of a corruption scandal with massive bribes and installments to and from a city official over three decades. Late last year, the Osaka District Court ruled that two reactors at its Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui were vulnerable to a major earthquake, despite approval that the NRA would restart. Last year, KEPCO’s Takahama plant had to cease operations at two nuclear reactors after failing to build adequate terrorist facilities.

The Genkai power station in Saga, operated by Kyūshū Electric Power Company, has also experienced numerous problems since being reactivated in March 2018, including steam leaks and faulty cooling pumps. Last month, a local district court rejected a lawsuit by residents to halt production and ruled that the plant was adequately protected for volcanic and seismic activity under the new guidelines.

The nuclear power plants in Japan have long been notorious for poor security, and were regularly supplied with manpower by organized crime groups before and after the Fukushima nuclear accident. Even now, background checks are not mandatory. The situation is so dire that two former rivals of rival parties held a joint press conference in March this year calling on Japan to abandon nuclear power. Most Japanese citizens seem to share their vision, while 53 percent are opposed to restarting the country’s nuclear reactors.

But this is no longer Japan’s problem alone. Last week, the government announced that Japan will release radioactive waste that is still overflowing from its 2011 nuclear accident into the ocean within two years. Although officials gave assurances that the water would be safe, they did not say that much of the ‘treated water’ at the site contained lethal levels of other radioactive materials.

What will happen to the people of Japan and to the countries that share their oceans when the next nuclear accident occurs? It may just be an earthquake, and neither TEPCO nor the government they have to regulate has a promising record when it comes to managing nuclear energy.

Ten years after the Fukushima incident, TEPCO is still clearing up the disaster and pouring tons of seawater into the remains of the reactors every day to cool it down. It will take decades to take the plant out of service while the disaster is still waiting to happen.

The aging nuclear power plants in Japan are time bombs waiting to go down. Even if terrorists do not stumble through lax security and steal material for a dirty bomb, Mother Nature and entropy can do the work in their place.