A panel of security consultants on Tuesday urged the operator of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear energy plant in Japan to speak extra rapidly with the general public over incidents corresponding to final week’s leak of contaminated water.
13 years after the Fukushima catastrophe wherein the plant suffered triple meltdowns following the 2011 earthquake, security tradition on the Tokyo Electrical Energy Firm Holdings firm has improved however there may be nonetheless work to do, stated Dale Klein, a former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Fee chairperson who now serves as an advisor to TEPCO’s reform committee.
The panel’s information briefing on its periodic evaluation got here every week after extremely radioactive water leaked from a therapy machine throughout upkeep work on the Fukushima Daiichi plant. TEPCO stated nobody was injured, and radiation monitoring reveals no leakage escaped the compound.
However the leak triggered criticism in and outdoors Japan. Any leak of radioactive water is a delicate matter.
In one other unintentional leak in October, 4 staff had been sprayed with radioactive liquid waste whereas cleansing a therapy facility. Two had been briefly hospitalized for pores and skin contamination, although none confirmed signs of poisoning.
Klein stated each incidents may have been prevented, and TEPCO must rapidly analyze what occurred in such mishaps and “in a short time talk to the general public what occurred and why.”
For threat management, many firms, together with TEPCO, usually attempt to know every part earlier than they are saying something publicly, Klein stated. However within the age of social media, hypothesis spreads rapidly, he stated.
The filtering machine concerned in final week’s incident is a part of TEPCO’s controversial wastewater discharge venture, which started in August.
The discharges, anticipated to proceed for many years, have been strongly opposed by fishing teams and neighboring international locations together with China, which banned imports of all Japanese seafood.
The security consultants acknowledged improved security tradition at TEPCO. It famous the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s lifting of a suspension on the utility to renew preparations to restart one other nuclear energy plant, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, after addressing lax safeguarding measures.
The subsequent large hurdle is consent from the local people.
“TEPCO should construct belief on daily basis, on a regular basis,” Klein stated. Belief “is difficult to achieve however simple to lose.”