Closing the barn door...

...after the horse's escaped.

Tepco admits nuke accident avoidable

やっぱり - YAPPARI

Just as everyone thought.

Tepco (Tokyo Electric Power Company) “finally admits [that the] nuke crisis [was] avoidable”.

An investigation by Tepco's own in house task force concluded that the company “was aware safety improvements were necessary long before last year's quake and tsunami caused ... but failed to act because it feared the political, economic and legal consequences of implementing new measures.”

Furthermore, “the utility could have mitigated the impact of the Fukushima meltdowns if it had diversified the plant's power and cooling systems by paying closer heed to international standards and recommendations [and] Tepco also should have trained its employees in practical crisis-management skills, rather than conducting obligatory safety drills as a mere formality...”

A five-member member committee headed by former U.S. nuclear regulatory chief Dale Klein set up to monitor Tepco's internal task force reform plan concluded: "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... The committee's goal is to ensure that Tepco develops practices and procedures so an accident like (the Fukushima meltdowns) will never happen again."

NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN? We seem to hear those brave new words after every major screw up has occurred. It has the moral equivalence of “Oops! Sorry, folks. We'll be sure to keep the barn door closed next time.” Until “the next time” finds the barn door wide open once again.

Meanwhile, “investigative reports compiled by the government and Diet panels said collusion between Tepco and government regulators resulted in lax supervision and allowed the utility to continue lagging in safety measures.”

But Tepco's apparently on top of it now if you have faith in Tepco's self serving pronouncements –like this one: Takafumi Anegawa, Tepco's official in charge of nuclear asset management said: ...”the task force plans to compile recommendations by year's end 'that would have saved us from the accident, if we were able to turn back the clock'."

Hmmm, yes, well....