For the first time after the nuclear disaster caused on March 11, 2012, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) confessed that the disaster could have been avoided. TEPCO released a statement which said that it knew that safety improvements were needed before last year’s tsunami, but it had feared that it would lead to economic, legal and political consequences while implementing them.
Last year, the March 21 earthquake had triggered a tsunami which led to the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. President Naomi Hirose of TEPCO’s internal task force said in the statement, “When looking back on the accident, the problem was that preparations were not made in advance”.
The task force also said that by adopting more extensive safety measures it was possible to take action. The statement also said that if efforts were made to take safety measures then it would have triggered an anti-nuclear sentiment and would have interfered with operations.
The impact of the incident could have been reduced if TEPCO had diversified power and cooling systems along with paying attention to international standards and recommendations. The task force also said that it should have trained its employees with practical crisis management skills instead of conducting obligatory drills as a formality.
