Fukushima News 7/31/15: Three Ex-TEPCO Execs Face Criminal Charges
Veröffentlicht am 31.07.2015
Three former TEPCO executives to stand trial
Nuclear & Energy Jul. 31, 2015 - Updated 03:01 UTC-4
Three
former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company will face mandatory
indictment over the March 2011 nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi
plant.
Nobody has been held criminally responsible so far for Japan's worst nuclear accident.
The
prosecution inquest panel of randomly-selected citizens voted for the
indictment on Friday, disagreeing for a 2nd time with prosecutors who
had dismissed the complaint filed against the officials. The prosecutors
said the officials could not have predicted a quake and tsunami on the
scale of the March 11th disasters.
The decision leads to the
mandatory indictment of former TEPCO chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata and
former vice presidents Sakae Muto and Ichiro Takekuro for professional
negligence resulting in death and injury.
Court-appointed lawyers will act as prosecutors in the trial.
In
its decision, the panel said TEPCO should have taken measures to
protect the plant from tsunami and flood-triggered serious accidents
after it had made a projection of a 15.7-meter tsunami hitting the
plant.
The panel said TEPCO could have foreseen that in a worst-case
scenario, flooding would result in a massive release of radioactive
substances or other severe situations. The panel said that if TEPCO had
taken appropriate precautions, a serious accident like the one in March
2011 could have been avoided.
Prosecutors in 2013 dismissed the
initial complaints filed by Fukushima residents and others against more
than 30 former TEPCO officials for failing to take precautions against
major quakes and tsunami.
The case was taken up for reconsideration
by the inquest panel, which decided in July last year that the three
officials should be indicted.
But prosecutors dismissed the case again in January, sending it back to the inquest panel.
Fukushima plant tunnels clear of radioactive water
Nuclear & Energy Jul. 30, 2015 - Updated 12:48 UTC-4
The
operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it
has finished removing highly radioactive water from underground tunnels
linked to the reactor buildings.
More than 10,000 tons of highly
contaminated water flowed into the tunnels outside the buildings for
reactors No.2 and 3. Experts feared that the water might seep into the
sea.
The concern led the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power
Company, to try and block any more tainted water from entering the
tunnels.
The firm has been filling the tunnels with cement to pump out contaminated water since November.
It
finished draining the No.2 reactor building's tunnels late last month.
The company says it also completed similar work on the tunnels connected
to the No.3 reactor building on Thursday.
The firm will continue the work to fill the tunnels with cement until sometime late next month.
The
utility initially attempted to freeze radioactive water in sections
where the tunnels connect to the reactor buildings. But this did not
work.
Robot probe into No.2 reactor may be delayed
Nuclear & Energy Jul. 30, 2015 - Updated 18:02 UTC-4
The
operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says it may
have to postpone plans to send a robot probe into the plant's No.2
reactor due to difficult preparations.
Tokyo Electric Power Company
was planning to send a robot into the containment vessel of the No.2
reactor in August. The purpose is to capture video images of molten
nuclear fuel for the first time.
The utility assumes the fuel penetrated the reactor core and is inside the containment vessel.
The
plan involved using a pipe sticking out of the container as an entry
point for the robot. But some concrete blocks are blocking the way and
need to be removed.
Workers found that the remote-controlled
machinery they wanted to use to remove the blocks cannot operate in some
areas of the reactor building due to an eroded floor and other reasons.
TEPCO says it is now considering using chemicals to clear the blocks or developing new machinery to remove the blocks.
Due to these reasons, the utility says the probe may be postponed from August until December or later, in the worst case.
Hiroshima: The Sickness of Nuclear Proliferation
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-...
Gov’t:
Erosion is “undermining foundation” of major dam upstream of US nuclear
plants — “Extensive network” of seepage paths found — “Water flowing
through from multiple sources & multiple directions” — Nuclear
plants doing Problem Evaluation Reports on ‘complex and urgent’
situation (VIDEO)
http://enenews.com/govt-erosion-under...
Energy Department to Invest in Advanced Reactor Concept Development
http://www.energy.gov/articles/energy...
Nuclear & Energy Jul. 31, 2015 - Updated 03:01 UTC-4
Three
former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company will face mandatory
indictment over the March 2011 nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi
plant.
Nobody has been held criminally responsible so far for Japan's worst nuclear accident.
The
prosecution inquest panel of randomly-selected citizens voted for the
indictment on Friday, disagreeing for a 2nd time with prosecutors who
had dismissed the complaint filed against the officials. The prosecutors
said the officials could not have predicted a quake and tsunami on the
scale of the March 11th disasters.
The decision leads to the
mandatory indictment of former TEPCO chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata and
former vice presidents Sakae Muto and Ichiro Takekuro for professional
negligence resulting in death and injury.
Court-appointed lawyers will act as prosecutors in the trial.
In
its decision, the panel said TEPCO should have taken measures to
protect the plant from tsunami and flood-triggered serious accidents
after it had made a projection of a 15.7-meter tsunami hitting the
plant.
The panel said TEPCO could have foreseen that in a worst-case
scenario, flooding would result in a massive release of radioactive
substances or other severe situations. The panel said that if TEPCO had
taken appropriate precautions, a serious accident like the one in March
2011 could have been avoided.
Prosecutors in 2013 dismissed the
initial complaints filed by Fukushima residents and others against more
than 30 former TEPCO officials for failing to take precautions against
major quakes and tsunami.
The case was taken up for reconsideration
by the inquest panel, which decided in July last year that the three
officials should be indicted.
But prosecutors dismissed the case again in January, sending it back to the inquest panel.
Fukushima plant tunnels clear of radioactive water
Nuclear & Energy Jul. 30, 2015 - Updated 12:48 UTC-4
The
operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it
has finished removing highly radioactive water from underground tunnels
linked to the reactor buildings.
More than 10,000 tons of highly
contaminated water flowed into the tunnels outside the buildings for
reactors No.2 and 3. Experts feared that the water might seep into the
sea.
The concern led the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power
Company, to try and block any more tainted water from entering the
tunnels.
The firm has been filling the tunnels with cement to pump out contaminated water since November.
It
finished draining the No.2 reactor building's tunnels late last month.
The company says it also completed similar work on the tunnels connected
to the No.3 reactor building on Thursday.
The firm will continue the work to fill the tunnels with cement until sometime late next month.
The
utility initially attempted to freeze radioactive water in sections
where the tunnels connect to the reactor buildings. But this did not
work.
Robot probe into No.2 reactor may be delayed
Nuclear & Energy Jul. 30, 2015 - Updated 18:02 UTC-4
The
operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says it may
have to postpone plans to send a robot probe into the plant's No.2
reactor due to difficult preparations.
Tokyo Electric Power Company
was planning to send a robot into the containment vessel of the No.2
reactor in August. The purpose is to capture video images of molten
nuclear fuel for the first time.
The utility assumes the fuel penetrated the reactor core and is inside the containment vessel.
The
plan involved using a pipe sticking out of the container as an entry
point for the robot. But some concrete blocks are blocking the way and
need to be removed.
Workers found that the remote-controlled
machinery they wanted to use to remove the blocks cannot operate in some
areas of the reactor building due to an eroded floor and other reasons.
TEPCO says it is now considering using chemicals to clear the blocks or developing new machinery to remove the blocks.
Due to these reasons, the utility says the probe may be postponed from August until December or later, in the worst case.
Hiroshima: The Sickness of Nuclear Proliferation
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-...
Gov’t:
Erosion is “undermining foundation” of major dam upstream of US nuclear
plants — “Extensive network” of seepage paths found — “Water flowing
through from multiple sources & multiple directions” — Nuclear
plants doing Problem Evaluation Reports on ‘complex and urgent’
situation (VIDEO)
http://enenews.com/govt-erosion-under...
Energy Department to Invest in Advanced Reactor Concept Development
http://www.energy.gov/articles/energy...
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