Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. Space Travel 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
ATK Unveils Unique Liberty Capability

Avanti Announces Launch Date for HYLAS 2 Satellite

Three Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne RS-68A Engines Power Delta IV Heavy Upgrade Vehicle on Inaugural Flight

ULA Delta IV Heavy Launches Second Payload in Nine Days for the NRO

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Fireworks Over Mars: The Spirit of 76 Pyrotechnics

Martian moon Phobos could be life clue

Exhumed rocks reveal Mars water ran deep

Houston Workshop Marks Key Step in Planning Future Mars Missions

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
ESA to catch laser beam from Moon mission

Researchers Estimate Ice Content of Crater at Moon's South Pole

Researchers find evidence of ice content at the moon's south pole

Nanoparticles found in moon glass bubbles explain weird lunar soil behaviour

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
It's a Sim: Out in Deep Space, New Horizons Practices the 2015 Pluto Encounter

Beyond Pluto And Exploring the Kuiper Belt

Uranus auroras glimpsed from Earth

Herschel images extrasolar analogue of the Kuiper Belt

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
New Planet-weighing Technique Found

Innovative technique enables scientists to learn more about elusive exoplanet

Dramatic change spotted on a faraway planet

New Way of Probing Exoplanet Atmospheres

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Rocketdyne Completes CCDev 2 Hot Fire Testing on Thruster for NASA Commercial Crew Program

Thruster Tests Completed for Boeing's CST-100

Through the atmosphere with sharp edges

NASA Space Launch System Core Stage Moves From Concept to Design

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
China open to cooperation

China set to launch bigger space program

Nation has long way to go as space power

An inspiring mission

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Explained: Near-miss asteroids

The B612 Foundation Announces The First Privately Funded Deep Space Mission

Ex-NASA astronauts aim to launch asteroid tracker

A Fleeting Flyby Of A Battered World Called Asteroid 21 Lutetia




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