TEPCO must address ‘institutionalized lying’ before it restarts world’s biggest nuclear power plant – governor
Tokyo Electric Power Co must give a more thorough account of the Fukushima disaster and address “institutionalized lying” in the company, before it will be permitted to restart the Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant, according to a local governor.
“If they don’t do what needs to be done, if they keep skimping on costs and manipulating information, they can never be trusted,” Niigata Prefecture Governor Hirohiko Izumida told Reuters on Monday, adding that these limitations need to be overcome before the plant is restarted.
However, he declined to mention to the wire agency when he would
be launching his review and provided no agenda. “If they
cooperate with us, we will be able to proceed smoothly. If not,
we won't,” he said in response to questioning on the subject.
If Japanese nuclear safety regulators do lend their approval to
the restart plans, Izumida remains able to essentially block
TEPCO’s plans for the plant as the facility requires the backing
of local officials, allotting Izumida some leverage.
“Safety is our utmost priority and we are not acting on an
assumption of nuclear restarts," said TEPCO spokesperson,
Yoshimi Hitotsugi. “We want to work on this issue while
gaining the understanding of the local population and related
parties.”
Izumida suggested that TEPCO should be fully stripped of
responsibility for decommissioning the destroyed Fukushima
reactors, and the company subjected to a taxpayer-funded
bankruptcy program. Presently, the company remains primarily
concerned with funding the process, along with the
frequently-occurring and very immediate issue of contaminated
water leaking rather than overall nuclear safety.
“Unless we create a situation where 80-90 percent of their
thinking is devoted to nuclear safety, I don't think we can say
they have prioritized safety,” he said.
The decommissioning of the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi plant itself
will be a long and arduous process – expected to take 30 years –
and has already sparked controversy in the country.
Reuters investigations have identified widespread abuses at the
plant, among them the involvement of illegal brokers. Over 6,000
staff are involved in the project. “The workers at the plant
are risking their health and giving it their all,” said
Izumida.
However, wage-skimming has been a habitual practice. Izumida
offered to make the workers participating in the clean-up public
employees.
TEPCO aims to restart Kashiwazaki Kariwa next April. If all of
its reactors became operational again, the company could
potentially save $1 billion on a monthly basis in fuel
costs.
The TEPCO-run Fukushima Daiichi power plant was disrupted in
March 2011 by a massive earthquake and tsunami which wreaked
havoc at Fukushima and sparked a nuclear crisis in which
meltdowns occurred in three reactors. It was considered to
be the world’s worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl
disaster in 1986 and has since cost TEPCO some $27 billion in
losses.
Since then it has suffered frequent spillages of water containing
radioactive substances. In August, one storage tank leaked over
300 tons of contaminated water. TEPCO first admitted that the
Fukushima plant was leaking radioactive substances in July after
months of denial.
In September, a senior utility expert at Fukushima, Kazuhiko
Yamashita, said that the plant was “not under control.” TEPCO
downplayed his comments, saying that he had only been talking
about the plant’s waste water problem – not the facility as a
whole.
“There are three things required of a company that runs
nuclear power plants: don't lie, keep your promises and fulfil
your social responsibility,” Izumida concluded.
