Mutter reported on Temblor that the recent acquittal of the TEPCO executives in the Fukushima earthquake tragedy hearkens back to the trial of the Italian seismologists who were charged with negligence after the L’Aquila, Italy, earthquakes. Both events raise the question: How much do you prepare for the most dreadful disasters, which result from truly large or rare paroxysms of the Earth?
Three TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) senior management executives had been charged with negligence for their role in the Fukushima power plant tragedy [Fact Check: Not a tragedy, just an incident!!] that resulted from overtopping of protective walls around the plant and taking out the standby power to keep the fuel. All have been acquitted of all charges. Reaction in Japan varied from outrage to a grudging, “of course; that’s what always happens.” According to Japanese NHK, Kyodo News, Presiding Judge Kenichi Nagafuchi, in handing down the decision, said: “It would be impossible to operate a nuclear plant if operators are obliged to predict every possibility about a tsunami and take necessary measures.” That’s fair; no one can know everything about tsunamis. But we do know some things; in fact, we know quite a lot.
[But geologists should have raised the alarms when originally reviewing the plant site selection and called out the potential damage to the plant if the plant didn't have better protections from an earthquake. But that mistake was made decades ago and future precautions will be built into future plant repairs and construction. But it must be emphasized that no one died from radiation or the hydrogen gas explosion. The tsunami did killed thousands becasue they were not warned in time to evaluate or because the critical seawalls weren't high enough to hold back or re-direct the waves away from population centers.]
[Read on ... but look for hyperbole, re-directing blame, pandering to the rampant fear of the Japanese for radiation, especially by the older citizens who were no doubt remembering the end of WWII.].
Managed & Built by I2M Consulting, LLC | © 2010-
