Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szGQFhG1zT4
We very much recommend you to watch these
videos:
The program starts with an interview with
Mr. Yukiteru Naka, a Japanese nuclear engineer who talks about a powerful group
that put cost effectiveness as their top priority. The group consists of
TEPCO, the Government, and the scientists within top universities, and they are
the ones involved in decision makings of national importance. He says
whoever tries anything against the grain of this prime directive gets met by
its powerful opposition. The documentary points finger to the climate of
criminal design of the group and supporting psychological inertia that has
together eventually lead to that final disaster that came to pass last year at
Fukushima. Earthquake and tsunami was just a trigger.
Then there is another testimony from Mr.
Kei Sugaoka, an engineer from the U.S. assigned to inspect the American
designed reactor, and he testifies to TEPCO's deliberate concealment of serious
mismanagements and accidents he witnessed during his employment. He says
Reactor 1 at Fukushima was operating with serious defects, and as the inspector
it was his job to report it but he was told by TEPCO to keep his mouth
shut. Out of fear of losing his job , he kept this to himself for 10
years, until after he was laid off and finally reported it to the nuclear
regulatory authority of Japan, but apparently they, too, squashed his reports.
Now, Mr. Eisaku Sato, the former governor of Fukushima had been warned by other
whistle-blowers just like this man who were likewise aware of
serious risks in the operation of the reactors in Fukushima, and the governor
tried to act upon it, only to find that instead of anything done about it, the
names of the whistle-blowers were given away to TEPCO. The governor then
disclosed it in a newspaper the risks of nuclear reactors, as well as TEPCO's
30 years of concealing various accidents. As a result of this TEPCO
resorted to reshuffling the top executive posts to account for it, but at the
same time orchestrated character assassination of the governor which led to his
resignation from the post. Naoto Kan, the former Prime Minister of Japan
recalls that in the last 10 - 20 years there's been pressure applied in every
possible way to prevent whistle-blowing about danger of nuclear power. Research
scientists who warn the risks would never see a chance for promotion in their
career, Politicians receive handsome supports from power companies depending on
the size of contribution to promote nuclear power. Same is true with
sports and media industries. There is an intricate network extending to
vast areas making it a problem of national scale. Almost everybody in Japan is
trapped in it. Kan says 100 MPs who receive such financial support from
electric companies includes his predecessor. Job opportunities for ministerial
bureaucrats after retirements are secured at affiliated companies within the
industry. Sometimes the executives of the industry are appointed to the
post of Energy Minister. An MP interviewed in this video documentary says
both central government and municipal governments have supported the illusion
that nuclear power is safe. Based on this myth, no precautionary measures
have ever been considered or conceived, and this time last year the myth was
broken. Kan says Nuclear power station was initially planned to be built
35 m above sea level. But TEPCO built it at 15 m above sea level, on the ground
that it made it easier to pump sea water for cooling, that it is more cost
effective. At the time of last year's accident, the power was cut first
by earthquake, then the emergency power source got submerged by tsunami. Kan
says in the same interview that he was not informed of these facts at the time,
and how he got to know about the explosion was from TV. He thinks TEPCO
owes responsibility to explain the situation despite all the difficulties to
arrive at any solution. He states further that although TEPCO has known
of the meltdown as early as on the very day of the earthquake and tsunami, they
insisted that they had no knowledge of meltdown until early May, while the rest
of the world was well aware of the inevitability. The climate of concealing
massive data has not changed to this date. They provide their data to the
daily press conference, but keep insisting the situation is under
control. Unbelievable as it is, among the data provided by TEPCO are some
facts that makes one wonder if everything IS under control - this goes to
things like the disappearance of contaminated cooling water due to the
hosepipes getting pierced by ....growing weeds???... To this TEPCO tries
their NOW-infamous phrase "unexpected in our estimation".
Another interview with Mr.
Yukiteru Naka. He owns a company with 80 engineers working under him;
they work at the Fukushima nuclear disaster site. Mr. Naka says his
gravest concern is one day they run out of workers. Whoever works at the
site gets irradiated very quickly above the limit, and he doesn't think there
will be enough workers with sufficient skills. Even if it's possible to
secure professionals to work at the site for the next 40 years, (In case you
are not aware, this 40 years is the length of time that takes before they can
stat decommissioning, not before) he says there remains one problem that may
change the whole of Japan and the world. He is very very worried about
the state of Reactor 4 spent fuel pool. He knows it will not withstand
the impact of the next big earthquakes that is now said to be due. All six
reactors at the site then become impossible to control. - Armageddon, that's
the word the presenter chose to describe it. And his concern is well
justified since in the next interview with Mr. Hideki Shimamura who is a
renowned seismologist talks about this earthquake as having 75 percent
probability of occurring within 4 years. Last interview was with Mr. Isao Shirai, who is in charge of disaster countermeasures office, 60km away from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant. This office was set up by Tepco, Nuclear safety agency, Fukushima prefectural government. When Mr. Shirai was questioned about earthquake-resistance of nuclear power plants in Japan by the ZDF presenter, he could only say “I found the question difficult to answer.” after long silence.
-------------------------------------
It’s a great report by German video. I wish this kind of report were broadcast in the main stream TV in Japan and UK. I feel very sad about so much control over the media which most Japanese people are not aware of. Whenever this group of Nuclear power was accused of not enough information to the public, they say “We don’t want to cause the panic.”. Aren’t we talking about people’s life? Of course they need to know. I didn’t know anything about radiation/nuclear world till March 11 last year, but I’ve come to notice there are so many manipulations over the media even for my eyes as normal citizen. When they don’t tell a lie, they only give out a bit of it so I often have to read several reports on the same topic to get the whole meaning of it. They often use different unit, I bet it’s a deliberate, to explain the amount of radiation which is rather confusing. When there were reports of death of Tepco workers, the articles were short, saying radiation level they were exposed wasn’t that high… Further investigation to follow… and we never get to hear any more news about it. Also Tepco and the government only give out data and information a little bit at a time. Unless I research and follows the news on a daily basis it’s easy to miss what’s going on. So it’s really great to see all the fact together. (Mia June)
