A Japanese parliamentary panel has said in a report that the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant was “a profoundly man-made disaster”, and that the disaster “could and should have been foreseen and prevented”. The report also blamed cultural conventions and a reluctance to question authority.

The report, ambiguously titled “The National Diet of Japan, The official report of The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission”, reveals serious deficiencies in both the government and plant operator Tepco’s responses.

The disaster could and should have been “mitigated by a more effective human response”, it said.

Accepting responsibility, the commission says:

The Commission has verified that on March 11, 2011, the structure of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant was not capable of withstanding the effects of the earthquake and the tsunami. Nor was the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant prepared to respond to a severe accident. In spite of the fact that TEPCO and the regulators were aware of the risk from such natural disasters, neither had taken steps to put preventive measures in place. It was this lack of preparation that led to the severity of this accident.

The report continued that the disaster, while initiated by nature, cannot be regarded as a natural disaster:

Although triggered by these cataclysmic events, the subsequent accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant cannot be regarded as a natural disaster. It was a profoundly man-made disaster – that could and should have been foreseen and prevented.

The six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was badly damaged after the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems to reactors, leading to meltdowns and the release of radioactivity. Earlier this year, low levels of nuclear radiation were found in bluefin tuna off the California coast.

After six months of investigation that included 900 hours of hearings, and interviews with more than 1 000 people, the panel concluded that the disaster “was the result of collusion between the government, the regulators and Tepco”, mainly rooted in the failure of regulatory systems.

Tens of thousands of residents were evacuated from an exclusion zone around the plant as workers battled to bring reactors under control. Tepco eventually declared the reactors stable in December 2011, but they have their sceptics.

All of Japan’s nuclear plants were shut down after the Fukushima disaster, but on Sunday, the first reactor was restarted in the town of Ohi in Fukui prefecture. This led to large protests in Tokyo, but Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda urged support for the move, saying a return to nuclear power was essential for the economy.

Read the full report HERE.

[Source: BBC]