Survival Leaving Responsibility Behind

The Governor of Niigata Prefecture, Hirohiko Izumida, decided to approve the resumption of reactors in Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Generation Plant. He admitted efforts of the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, to demand his allowance. Why did the company insist on the resumption? It was simply for its own survival as a business entity. Now, the company that failed in preparing major earthquake, in avoiding melting down of fuel rod, in providing residents with appropriate information about falls of radioactive materials, and in preventing contaminated water from flowing into the sea is rushing toward resuming nuclear business.

Izumida has been highly reluctant to allow TEPCO resuming the reactors in Kashiwazaki-Kariwa. Urged by his staffs and members of local assembly, however, he approved it with condition that TEPCO would take appropriate measures for safety. TEPCO promised to settle additional ventilating facilities, which would be needed for exhaling contaminated air to avoid explosion of the plant in emergency. The governor accepted its plan as a major progress.

The significance of his decision was it would be the first reactor for TEPCO to resume its operation after the accident in Fukushima. The company has seventeen reactors for power generation in the sites of First Fukushima, Second Fukushima and Kashiwazaki-Kariwa. Four reactors in First Fukushima were broken and rest of the two are destined to be dismantled. Four reactors in Second Fukushima are unlikely to be resumed, because of strong opposition of people in Fukushima. So, only Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is the possible plant to restart working.

Compensating Fukushima residents for damages by the accident, TEPCO has been accumulating deficit since the disaster occurred. If it is not be able to turn its balance to the black by the end of this fiscal year, banks are going to halt its finance for TEPCO, which means bankrupt of the company. The key for improving the balance is resumption of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa indeed.

The point is whether TEPCO can really afford to resume the reactors. The biggest and most urgent issue for the company is to stop the leakage of contaminated water in First Fukushima, to keep fifteen hundreds of fuel rods there stable, or to clean all the lands up around the site. All those are definitely the duties of the company. The correct answer is to let TEPCO be bankrupted and to make TEPCO’s stockholders responsible for the failure. But, elites of this country are still sticking to their vested interests.