Asia Bizz: The nuclear safety chief of Japan announced on February 15, 2012 that the regulations of the country are flawed, outdated and below the global standards. Haruki Madarme also apologized for the failure when the tsunami damaged one of the plants last year.
Madarme admitted that the Japanese safety requirements for calamities like tsunami and power losses were too loose and that many of the officials have tried looking the other way and have avoided to make changes. Madarme heads the Nuclear Safety Commission and was speaking at an inquiry investigating the meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi that was sponsored by parliament.
The earthquake and the tsunami on March 11, 2011 had crippled the cooling as well as the power system of the plant. The meltdown of the three reactors had led to massive radiation leaks. Due to this more than 100,000 people around the plant had to relocate due to the fear of radiations. The nuclear safety chief also said that the officials never took seriously the impact of power outages and assumed that the long hours of blackouts in Japan would be low. It was also assumed that the backup generators would have been enough and never thought of the risk of keeping them at the basement.
