TEPCO finally admits catastrophic Fukushima disaster was completely avoidable

Thursday, October 18, 2012 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: TEPCO, Fukushima, catastrophe

(NaturalNews) After repeatedly denying that it could not have done anything more to preventatively curtail the damage sustained at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility following the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck on March 11, 2011, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has finally come forward with an honest admission that its now-stricken facility had preexisting structural and safety problems that the company basically ignored.

TIME.com reports that TEPCO recently issued a statement explaining that prior to the three Fukushima meltdowns resulting from the catastrophic damage, company officials were already well aware of the fact that the facility was in dire need of serious renovations and retrofit. But because of various political, economic, and legal concerns, TEPCO deliberately delayed addressing these important issues, which is now coming back to haunt the company.

"Looking back on the accident, the problem was that preparations were not made in advance," said a TEPCO investigatory task force, led by the company's president, Naomi Hirose, in a recent statement. "Could necessary measures have been taken with previous tsunami evaluations? It was possible to take action."

This is a shocking admission, especially since TEPCO's handling of the crisis up until this point has been questionably deceptive. Back in 2011, for instance, journalists began to call out TEPCO officials for allegedly covering up evidence showing that the earthquake, and not the tsunami, was ultimately responsible for the monumental damage that occurred at the Fukushima facility. (http://enenews.com)

Since the very beginning, TEPCO has continually tried to deny responsibility for the meltdowns, as well as the impending failure of Reactor 4, which was recently brought to the world's attention by former Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan. According to his analysis, the ground beneath Reactor 4 has been steadily sinking which, besides representing a very serious global threat, also illustrates the fact that the construction of the Fukushima facility was not properly designed to sustain heavy earthquake movement. (http://enenews.com)

"It's very important for TEPCO to recognize the need to reform and the committee is very anxious to facilitate the reforms necessary for TEPCO to become a world-class company," U.S. nuclear regulatory chief Dale Klein, who is currently heading up TEPCO's Nuclear Reform Monitoring Committee, is quoted as saying by Japan Times. "The committee's goal is to ensure that TEPCO develops practices and procedures so an accident like (Fukushima) will never happen again."

Sources for this article include:

http://world.time.com

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20121014a1.html