Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. Military Space News .




DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Japan Diet to publish Fukushima disaster probe
by Staff Writers
Tokyo (AFP) July 5, 2012


A Japanese parliament probe into the nuclear disaster at Fukushima is expected to say the then prime minister fanned chaos in the opening days of the crisis when it publishes its final report Thursday.

The Diet's Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission will publish the dossier in the afternoon after having publicly interviewed top officials from the government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO).

In interim statements, the commission has voiced criticism of Naoto Kan, who led the government when a 9.0-magnitude earthquake on March 11, 2011, sparked a deadly tsunami along the northern Pacific coast.

Giant waves crippled cooling equipment at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, triggering meltdowns that spewed radioactivity and forced tens of thousands of residents to flee.

The Kan government's initial response was slow and inadequate because it was unprepared, the commission has said in the past.

The body has also said Kan's aggressive but haphazard engagement with TEPCO after the accident did more harm than good.

"Frequent telephone calls were placed to the power plant from the prime minister's office and the government," the commission said in a statement issued last month.

"At times, very elementary questions were asked, forcing the work crew to direct their efforts to accommodate them," it said, adding that men at the site should have been left to tackle the crisis.

Kan came in for serious criticism for creating a distraction when he visited the Fukushima plant the day after the tsunami, as emergency workers scrambled to contain what would become full-blown meltdowns.

His administration was also lambasted for providing inadequate or confusing information to the public and was later found to have withheld computer models that showed how radiation from the busted reactors might spread.

There was deep distrust between the government and TEPCO, and engineers knew little about exactly what was happening inside the overheating reactors.

The dossier will be the third of its kind after a private group of scholars and journalists publicised their study February, followed by an internal report by TEPCO in June.

The Diet commission, launched in December at the demand of opposition parties, was designed as an alternative to the administration's investigation into the worst nuclear crisis in a generation.

The government's official Investigation Committee on the Accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Stations, launched under Kan in June 2011, will finish its report later this month.

.


Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
A world of storm and tempest
When the Earth Quakes






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Record radiation levels detected at Fukushima reactor
Tokyo (AFP) June 27, 2012
TEPCO, the operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, said Wednesday record amounts of radiation had been detected in the basement of reactor number 1, further hampering clean-up operations. TEPCO took samples from the basement after lowering a camera and surveying instruments through a drain hole in the basement ceiling. Radiation levels above radioactive water in the basemen ... read more


DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Israel-U.S. drill will boost missile plans

U.S., Israel map out joint missile plan

Turkey to pick new missile defence system soon

Amid rocket battle, upgrade for Iron Dome

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
S-500 - a miracle of a weapon

Czech army's CASA planes fail anti-missile tests

Iran test-fires ballistic missile able to hit Israel: media

Egypt seizes Grad rockets smuggled from Libya: reports

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Pakistan civilian deaths from US drones 'lowest since 2008'

Drones: pros and cons

UN urges answers on US drone attacks, targeted killings

Northrop Grumman Unveils U.S. Navy's First MQ-4C BAMS Unmanned Aircraft

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Lockheed Martin Selected to Manage Major Defense Information Systems Network Operations

Lockheed Martin Selected to Deliver Major Improvements to DoD's ISR Information Sharing Capabilities

Boeing FAB-T Demonstrates Communications with On-orbit AEHF Satellite

Lockheed Martin Completes Environmental Testing on Second US Navy Satellite

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Boeing Completes Wind Tunnel Tests on Silent Eagle Conformal Weapons Bay

Taiwan, US to sign fighter radar contract: report

Portuguese armor vehicle to test in Brazil

Northrop Grumman Demonstrates Joint Threat Emitter for NAS Whidbey Island

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
UN leader condemns lack of regulation for arms trade

Indonesia pulls out of Dutch tanks deal

European governments call for robust arms trade treaty

Arms trade treaty talks set to begin at UN

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
China -- again the villain in US election

Russian Air Force to take part in USAF training exercises

Obama raps China, Romney in debut campaign bus tour

Britain details major cutbacks to army

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Nanodiamonds cut through dirt to bring back 'bling' to low temperature laundry

Research team develops world's most powerful nanoscale microwave oscillators

Researchers test carbon nanotube-based ultra-low voltage integrated circuits

Researchers tune the strain in graphene drumheads to create quantum dots




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement