nuclear-news

Japan’s history of falsified nuclear safety records

In 2002 TEPCO was caught falsifying safety records and was forced to shut down all 17 of its reactors, including those at the stricken Fukushima I facility, located some 240km north of Tokyo in eastern Japan, on the Pacific coast. TEPCO executives admitted to over 200 submissions of false technical data in the previous two decades. The only reason TEPCO was caught was because a US nuclear engineer working at TEPCO came forward with the information,

Who controls nuclear control agencies? Japan’s earthquake caused a nuclear crisis which could be repeated in other countries .. Al Jazeera Stephen Leahy 23 Mar 2011 As Japan struggles to confront a nuclear disaster that could be the worst in history, it seems clear that any discussion about the safety of nuclear energy should address the independence of regulatory agencies.

On Apr. 26, 1986 a series of explosions and fires at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine released radioactive fallout that spread over eastern and western Europe, particularly affecting Ukraine itself, Byelorussia (now Belarus) and Russia, all Soviet republics at the time.

Twenty-five years later, Chernobyl’s reactor number 4 continues to emit high levels of radioactivity even though it is buried under a thick but decaying layer of concrete.

Europe and the United States are trying to raise more than $2bn to build a permanent sarcophagus to contain the radiation.

The Chernobyl disaster is usually attributed to obsolete technology and the secrecy characteristic of the Soviet regime.

Japan’s crisis

The accident at the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant was triggered by the damage resulting from the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11.

But “TEPCO doesn’t have the best record for safety or disclosure of information,” said Mycle Schneider, a Paris-based energy and nuclear policy analyst who also works in Japan.

Schneider said.

A smaller 6.6 earthquake in 2007 forced TEPCO to shut down all seven reactors at the world’s largest nuclear power station on the west coast of the country. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility was closed for 21 months for repairs and additional earthquake-proofing. Only four of seven reactors have been restarted.

“There is no location in Japan that isn’t prone to earthquakes,” said Schneider…….
Who controls nuclear control agencies? – Features – Al Jazeera English

March 24, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties