Some notable and sobering quotes from “The Offical Report of The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission” published by the National Diet of Japan and chaired by Kiyoshi Kurokawa (2012).
- It was a profoundly man-made disaster – that could and should have been foreseen and prevented.
- What must be admitted – very painfully – is that this was a disaster “Made in Japan.” Its fundamental causes are to be found in the ingrained conventions of Japanese culture: our reflexive obedience; our reluctance to question authority; our devotion to ‘sticking with the program’; our groupism; and our insularity.
- The regulators should have taken a strong position on behalf of the public, but failed to do so. As they had firmly committed themselves to the idea that nuclear power plants were safe, they were reluctant to actively create new regulations.
- We have concluded that—given the deficiencies in training and preparation—once the total station blackout occurred, including the loss of a direct power source, it was impossible to change the course of events.
- In spite of the fact that TEPCO and the regulators were aware of the risk from such natural disasters, neither had taken steps to put preventive measures in place. It was this lack of preparation that led to the severity of this accident.
- The Japanese nuclear industry has fallen behind the global standard of earthquake and tsunami preparedness, and failed to reduce the risk of severe accidents by adhering to the five layers of the defense-in-depth strategy.
- The power supply system was especially poor from a defensive
perspective, and suffered from a lack of redundancy, diversity and independence. - A third issue was the arbitrary interpretation and selection of a probability theory. TEPCO tried to justify the belief that there was a low probability of tsunami, and used the results of a biased calculation process as grounds to ignore the need for countermeasures.