Asahi Shinbun - Japan's Nuke Regulators Considered Fukushima Scenario Years Ago, Then Did Nothing

[hatrack]

Japan’s nuclear regulators considered exactly the sort of total power loss that helped trigger the Fukushima disaster more than 18 years before it occurred, but decided not to do anything about it apparently because nuclear operators said it would never happen.

Documents belatedly released by the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan (NSC) on June 4 show that one of its working groups considered taking measures to deal with total power losses, but eventually dismissed the idea in 1993 after facing resistance from power firms.

The working group was set up in 1991 and comprised five experts and outside representatives, including employees of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) and Kansai Electric Power Co.

The NSC secretariat instructed utilities in October 1992 to produce written depositions to explain why there was no need to consider total alternating-current (AC) power losses lasting 30 minutes or more. TEPCO said in its reply: "Sufficient safety can be guaranteed if appropriate management operations are implemented.”

EDIT

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/life_and_death/AJ201206050068

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. "no one could have foreseen..

except the people who did, but we ignored them"