Former TEPCO bosses to face trial over deadly Fukushima nuclear disaster

Prosecutors in Tokyo decided not to press charges against TEPCO executives for the Fukushima disaster due to lack of evidence.

However Japanese law has a provision that a citizen review panel can overturn such a decision which is what happened in this case, so charges have been brought against three TEPCO executves.

As the article states, TEPCO executives were warned about the possibility of a sufficiently large tsunami to overwhelm their backup systems three years before that actually happened, so it will be argued that inaction by the executives to prevent the disaster they knew could occur is criminal behavior.

Former TEPCO bosses to face trial over deadly Fukushima nuclear disaster

It will be argued that in the years before the nuclear disaster, these executives had seen internal reports and simulations warning of the risk of a major earthquake in the region triggering a massive tsunami.

The plant was built to withstand a wave of 5.7 metres in height; the tsunami that struck was 15 metres high.

Here's an article from 2011 with more details about the 2008 internal TEPCO report saying they thought the seawall to protect against a 5.7m tsunami was inadequate, but TEPCO executives thought the larger tsunami estimates were "unrealistic".

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant operator 'ignored tsunami warning'

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant ignored warnings that the complex was at risk of damage from a tsunami of the size that hit north-east Japan in March, and dismissed the need for better protection against seawater flooding, according to reports.

Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) officials rejected "unrealistic" estimates made in a 2008 internal report that the plant could be threatened by a tsunami of up to 10.2 metres, Kyodo news agency said.

We should learn some more facts as this trial unfolds regarding exactly what TEPCO executives did or did not do regarding this internal report warning of a larger tsunami than their seawall could handle. It turned out the tsunami estimate in the internal report was not "unrealistic".

a reply to: Arbitrageur

This is very good news for all the people of Earth. Thank you for sharing it with us.

It's sad that it's taken 6 years just for charges to be brought against these megalomaniacs. Let's see if the charges stick and actual accountability is dished out.

It makes me wonder though how or if things might be different if this situation played out in the US. Hopefully we won't have to find out.

a reply to: Arbitrageur

Thanks for posting this. Tepco committed some major Fuku-ups in mismanaging the whole situation.
It may be assumed that they were acting like any North-American manager, and "managing the risk", which is code for spending as little as possible in prevention, and hoping for the luckiest result.

GE is in no way innocent in the whole Fukushima sequence, as they knowingly pushed inadequate designs, on known risk areas, and minimized possible problems.

a reply to: Arbitrageur

This is good and this is just. There are also good number of officials which should be added to the list of defendants.

They were indeed warned of a tsunami larger than what the wall was engineered to resist. It will take me some time, but I might go digging around in the original megathread on this and see if I can find the posts relating to this exactly. I know they're there, I made many of them.



Hm, the original thread seems to have gone AWOL once more.

My first response to this was "Great! TEPCO is the sole source of the disaster, from improper backup systems, to under-designing the plant, to slow and impotent responses to the disaster, to a massive cover-up of the actual damages, both present and future."

But then I realized... what will the law do to them? Take everything they own? Incarcerate them for years? Incarcerate them for life? Execute them?

No matter how severe the punishment, it will pale in comparison to the damage they have done to a massive chunk of the planetary ecosystem and the people who inhabit the area around it. There is no punishment severe enough to even satisfy the smallest sense of justice. So I will change my initial reaction to:

"Perhaps it will ease some people's desire for revenge, and perhaps even the tiniest hint of justice can be considered good, but in the end our efforts to punish those involved is as impotent as pumping seawater on a melting runaway nuclear core."

TheRedneck