| The Yomiuri Shimbun
Monday, 10:13 a.m. Just seconds after a great shock rumbled through Niigata Prefecture's Chuetsu area, steel pillars shook as cracks extended along the land on which Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station sits. A worker in the Tokyo Electric Power Co. plant's central control room barked an order to "scram!," indicating the automatic shutdown of the plant's reactors. Next to one of the reactors a power transformer burst into flames, releasing smoke that was caught on TV cameras and broadcast to the nation an hour later. This quake was the first natural disaster on record to hit a nuclear facility directly. Four hours after the initial temblor, TEPCO set up a makeshift press conference space near the entrance hall at the firm's headquarters in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. But TEPCO officials were able to say little more than "We're looking into it" when asked about the black smoke billowing from the power plant. To a question over whether oil at the plant had ignited, the officials replied that it was possible, while they were unable to provide details regarding four injuries at the plant. It was reported that water containing radioactive substances leaked into the sea in front of the plant from a nuclear fuel storage pool, but the TEPCO officials did not provide any insight into how the water leak occurred or where it originated from. So far, 63 problems at the nuclear plant caused by the earthquake have been reported, including damage to water pipes, but very little data about these developments have been provided. The power firm's handling of information has caused public concern over the matter to balloon, particularly as local fears are transmitted to people across the nation via news reports. Tours to other parts of the prefecture, too, have suffered as the travel industry has received a wave of cancellations. It took a long time for TEPCO to finally release information capable of quelling these fears. Though there is a system in place by which local residents can use the Internet to access information from radioactivity monitors at the plant, the system stopped working correctly just after the earthquake. As the data could not be accessed for 54 hours, locals had lost their only means to know if they were in danger of being exposed to radiation. (suite)
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Itaru Yasui, vice rector of United Nations University and an expert in risk management, said: "TEPCO should have made as much information available as possible as soon as possible. But the firm did quite the opposite." "The company made an extremely poor call in terms of risk communication," Yasui added. Under criticism from local residents, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shi-ozaki on Wednesday demanded that TEPCO clarify the problems at the nuclear plant. "I want the company to explain to the public in layman's terms what's happening, including how serious the problems have been," he said. Yet during a visit the same day to quake-affected areas, TEPCO President Tsunehisa Katsumata said, "Though this was a strong earthquake, our systems worked properly and there was very little risk of a radioactive leak." Though the full extent of his remark was taken at face value by nuclear engineers, it was far from easing local residents' fears over whether there had been an impact on their health or the surrounding environment. Despite rising public criticism, TEPCO did not set up a press center in the quake-hit areas. The story of the plant was picked up in the international media. International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said he wished Japan would be more transparent in its investigation into the matter, indicating distrust of the country was spreading among the international community. How serious was the damage from the earthquake? The automatic shutdown meant that seismic safety systems functioned properly, leaving the reactors undamaged. Michio Ishikawa, president of the Japan Nuclear Technology Institute, said, "Though the risk communication was insufficient, this disaster proved that the reactors' antiseismic technology and disaster-prevention functions surpassed the standards." But the disaster also highlighted the necessity for a broader range of geological research and improved firefighting systems for nuclear power plants. Antiseismic standards for nuclear power plants are almost certain to need a drastic overhaul. The nation's power firms have a long, hard road ahead of them if they hope to regain public confidence. |