Acquittal of Fukushima nuclear plant operator ex-bosses finalized

Of course.

Two tier “justice” system in Japan.

Of course.

Two tier “justice” system in Japan.

Beat me to it. No surprise here

So basically, no one from TEPCO, NISA or the LDP are being held accountable despite the fact that there were known reports that they all knew that a large tsunami was a threat. Before the disaster and in the Showa period, the LDP were the main political driving force and formed the pro-nuke goup "nuclear village" comprised of political, business, and bureacrats. Then after the disaster, because of NISA's negligence, the DPJ under Noda disbanded the NISA and formed the current NRA with more stringent regulations and independence. When Abe took power in 2012, the NRA's strict regulations were watered down to be more palatable to the industry. The Tokyo Olympics was meant to be the "Recovery Olympics," a symbol of hope and resilience for those affected by the Tohoku disaster. However, instead of uplifting the region, it became a tool for exploitation, with the plight of the Tohoku people used to line the pockets of some very shady individuals. Now, on the eve of the 14th anniversary of the 3/11 disaster, Japan finds itself back at square one, with many of the same issues—economic, environmental, and social—still unresolved.

"What a surprise" said noone ever.

TEPCO is responsible for the man-made nuclear disaster. They admitted that.

Unfortunately, Japan's supreme court had made worst precedence that managements themselves of major corporations can escape from responsibility no matter how serious damages they brought to people and society and environment.

Japan's major power corporations built many nuclear plants with knowing that here is earthquake-prone country and everywhere is dangerous, Besides arrogantly Tepco managements even ignored caution from tsunami experts, and neglected necessary measures with disliked more spending cost.

Judges justified such them.

Since Fukushima nuclear disaster, power corporations who caused nuclear disaster are criticized But nobody are punished, compensation that they pay to suffers is stealthly tack on electric bills, cost for decontamination or decommissioning is spent from taxpayers money.

That is, perpetrators of nuclear disaster lose nothing in Japan.

This judgment is equal to weaken necessity or motivation that especially managements of nuclear power corporations must do everything to avoid nuclear disaster.

wallace - TEPCO is responsible for the man-made nuclear disaster. They admitted that.

Responsibility and accountability are two very different things in Japan. Just because your responsible doesn't necessarily mean you are accountable. They were warned to move the back up generators onto the top of the reactor housings way back in 2001, which they ignored. They admitted to falsifying maintenance reports. I distincly remember the Prime Minister at the time screaming at the TEPCO boss to get his butt back into the plant and start cooling the reactors. They hold full repsonsibility but no accountability. Que jusge Dread, "I am the law!"

When the employee reported the (2008, 15.7m high tsunami risk) assessment result to Muto, the then vice president gave him instructions that could be interpreted as an order to prepare to build a levee. However, the employee testified that Muto later shifted policy and called for an investigation into whether the long-term tsunami risk assessment is correct rather than taking tsunami countermeasures.

Full story here: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180411/p2a/00m/0na/018000c

Interesting that the judge(s) is unnamed in the news report. Will taxpayers and long-time TEPCO shareholders and local fishermen ever forgive this acquittal?

Common people!! No one can predict accurately the impact of naturally disasters and aftermath. Whatever happened with TEPCO was unpredictable or unpreventable.

dbsaiya - extremely well said. And I’m sorry people downvoted you

No one can predict accurately the impact of naturally disasters and aftermath

BS. Read the Mainichi report I linked.

There are ancient tsunami markers much higher than Fukushima Daiichi's back up generators. Moving the latter much higher up (as recommended in the 2008 report by a TEPCO subsidiary) would arguably have averted the meltdown for pocket change at the time to a firm like TEPCO.

@Cephus

Tepco was warmed from the scientific community for decades not only on the blatant weakness of the design used in that plant but also of the potential of an important earthquake generating a catastrophic tsunami dangerous for this design. Tepco spent decades covering up technical deficiencies and incidents before the Fukushima disaster. During the event itself, the plant staff didn’t even understand correctly how the condenser and water gauges worked which made the reactor core melting even worse as it happened quickly from their poor decisions.

An investigation from an independent commission mandated by the government itself concluded that the disaster was man made and resulted from negligence. But of course nobody is now responsible because precisely Japan is an oligarchy with a protected class

The Fukushima 1 plant lacked efficient safety features that could have prevented a nuclear meltdown. The costs of those features would have been much less than the current cost of the disaster. The nearby Fukushima 2 plant was built on higher ground and survived the earthquake and tsunami.

Good thing tepco and the govt have been reformed and can be fully trusted now about what's happening regarding the fukushima disaster

MickeliciousTl

BS. Read the Mainichi report I linked.

There are ancient tsunami markers much higher than Fukushima Daiichi's back up generators. Moving the latter much higher up (as recommended in the 2008 report by a TEPCO subsidiary) would arguably have averted the meltdown for pocket change at the time to a firm like TEPCO.

"Would arguably have averted the meltdown" that's a redundant argument with no meaning. Which just emphasizes my whole point no one is/ was sure whether the meltdown was avoidable. What does it really mean by "moving the latter higher up" few inches, kilometers, or miles?

“Sur-PRIZE, Sur-PRIZE, Sur-PRIZE”

The meltdown could have been avoided if someone at the plant had been empowered to shut the reactor down. Nuclear reactors have control rods; when these rods are pushed in, the rods will stop the chain reaction. However, the reactor would then have to be rebuilt. Quite expensive to do.

The meltdown was caused because the operators lost power to the pumps that provided the water to cool the reactor. The reactors overheated. The plant had emergency generators, but these generators were destroyed by the tsunami.