Learn from Japan
SIR — With reference to David Gleason’s Torque column (July 27), I would like to take issue with the accuracy of some alleged facts quoted by Mr Gleason. He states: “In fact, the Fukushima-Daiichi plants were operating perfectly after the earthquake ... it was the tsunami that broke the necessary connections....”
Glossing over Mr Gleason’s confusion between nuclear reactors and nuclear plants, this statement contradicts the findings in the official report of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission, which was submitted to the Japanese Diet (parliament) in July.
It states: “Tepco’s (Tokyo Electric Power Company) report says the first wave of the tsunami reached the site at 15:27 and the second at 15:35. However, these are the times when the wave gauge, set 1,5km offshore, detected the waves, not the times when the tsunami hit the plant. This suggests that at least the loss of emergency power supply A at Unit 1 might not have been caused by flooding. Questions need to be explained before making a final determination that flooding was the cause of the station blackout.”
In its conclusion, the report states: “Therefore, we conclude that the accident was clearly ‘man-made’. We believe that the root causes were the organisational and regulatory systems that supported faulty rationales for decisions and actions....”
The nuclear industry has been at pains to avoid reaching this conclusion, and tried to shrug off responsibility by claiming that the tsunami caused all the trouble. Mr Gleason would do well to read the executive summary of this report before parroting these industry claims. It is of concern that many of the same regulatory problems exist in SA.
To name one example, our National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) is responsible to the minister of energy. Since its function is the “protection of persons, property and the environment”, it would be logical to have the NNR responsible to the minister of the environment.
Japan has learnt this lesson the hard way, and a new Nuclear Safety Commission has been formed under the environment ministry. SA should study the experiences in Japan with a view to learning from them.