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Inquiry blames Fukushima operator and authorities for nuclear disaster

27 December 2011 01:46 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. An independent commission investigating the causes of the Fukushima nuclear disaster criticized the nuclear power plant’s operator and the Japanese nuclear safety agency for being unprepared to such a scenario, APA reports quoting Ria Novosti.

’’It cannot be denied that people who have been involved in nuclear disaster response and those in charge of managing and operating nuclear power plants have lacked the whole-picture viewpoint in nuclear disaster preparedness,’’ the Kyodo news agency quoted the report as saying.

A powerful earthquake and tsunami wrecked the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant’s cooling systems on March 11, causing meltdown at three of its reactors. Radiation leaked into the atmosphere, soil and seawater, causing the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

An expert panel, headed by University of Tokyo professor emeritus Yotaro Hatamura, said in its 507-page interim report that a lack of internal communication and information gathering contributed for the workers’ failure to contain the nuclear crisis in its initial stages, The Japan Times said.

The government did not take advantage of a system to predict nuclear fallout distribution and ordered evacuation within the 20-km zone, which resulted in people leaving polluted areas only to find themselves in areas with even higher radioactive contamination.

The report also criticizes the government for issuing a vague evacuation order that "sounded almost the same as telling residents to "just run," the paper said.

The plant’s staff also assumed that cooling systems in units One and Three, knocked out by a powerful tsunami, were working when in fact they were out of order and reactors were overheating.

The report was compiled by interviewing more than 456 people. Its final version is expected by mid-2012.

The Japanese Nuclear Safety Commission estimated the financial loss from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster at $74 billion. The dismantlement of four reactor tanks will cost $14.9 billion and $52 billion will be spent on compensation, clean-up of radioactive soil and other measures.