Fukushima engineer says he helped cover up flaw at Dai-Ichi reactor No. 4 but was not believed when he told his story

[Emily]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-23/fukushima-engineer-says-he-covered-up-flaw-at-shut-reactor.html

Fukushima Engineer Says He Helped Cover Up Flaw at Dai-Ichi Reactor No. 4
By Jason Clenfield - Mar 22, 2011 5:54 PM PT
....
?All of a sudden I was sobbing and I started to think about what I?d done,? Tanaka said. ?I was thinking, ?I could be the father of a Japanese Chernobyl.??

Two years later Tanaka says he went to the Trade Ministry to report the cover-up he?d been involved in more than a decade earlier. The government refused to investigate and Hitachi denied his accusations, he said.

?They said, if Hitachi says they didn?t do it, then there?s no problem,? Tanaka said. ?Companies don?t always tell the truth.?

 

[LaMenchos]

Re: Fukushima engineer says he helped cover up flaw at Dai-Ichi reactor No. 4 but was not believed when he told his story

TEPCO - Power company failed to maintain safety checks
Kimiko De Freytas-Tamura <cite>March 21, 2011</cite>OSAKA: Days before Japan plunged into an atomic crisis after a giant earthquake and tsunami knocked out power at the ageing Fukushima nuclear plant, its operator had admitted faking repair records.
The revelation raises more questions about the scandal-tainted past of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) and the government's perceived soft regulation of the industry.

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The operator of the Fukushima No. 1 plant submitted a report to the country's nuclear watchdog 10 days before the quake hit on March 11, admitting it had failed to inspect 33 pieces of equipment in its six reactors.

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A power board distributing electricity to a reactor's temperature control valves was not examined for 11 years, and inspectors faked records, pretending to make thorough inspections when in fact they were only cursory, Tepco said.

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In 2002 Tepco admitted falsifying safety reports, which led to all 17 of its boiling-water reactors being shut down for inspection, including Fukushima.
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And in an eerily familiar event, a 2007 earthquake paralysed its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant - the world's biggest - and more radiation leaked than Tepco initially acknowledged.


http://www.smh.com.au/environment/power-company-failed-to-maintain-safety-checks-20110320-1c2fr.html

 

[LaMenchos]

Re: Fukushima engineer says he helped cover up flaw at Dai-Ichi reactor No. 4 but was not believed when he told his story

The intact inside of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa N-P shows what Fukushimaused to look like.


At minute 3+, the reporter mentions TEPCO's history of falsifying safety records.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1P6Q1e6gCg&feature=related


News item about Kashiwazaki-Kariwa N-P fire in 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e77DJkHUnew&NR=1