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Masao Yoshida, Director of Fukushima Daichii Nuclear Plant, Has Died

Posted by Unknown on from the thanks-for-saving-the-countryside dept.

Doofus writes "Masao Yoshida, director of the Daichii Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, has passed away. Colleagues and politicos in Japan praised his disobedience during the post-tsunami meltdown and credited him with preventing much more widespread and intense damage. From the article: 'On March 12, a day after the tsunami, Mr. Yoshida ignored an order from Tepco headquarters to stop pumping seawater into a reactor to try and cool it because of concerns that ocean water would corrode the equipment. Tepco initially said it would penalize Mr. Yoshida even though Sakae Muto, then a vice president at the utility, said it was a technically appropriate decision. Mr. Yoshida received no more than a verbal reprimand after then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan defended the plant chief, the Yomiuri newspaper reported. "I bow in respect for his leadership and decision-making," Kan said Tuesday in a message posted on his Twitter account.'"

7 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Blame Fukushima by Russ1642 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Every case of cancer in Japan for the next 200 years is going to be blamed on Fukushima.

    1. Re:Blame Fukushima by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Nuclear power isn't safe. It *could* be done safe, but not in a world of corporate greed and bought politicians and regulatory agencys.

    2. Re:Blame Fukushima by citylivin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "clean relatively safe nuclear power."

      I don't think I would consider "safe" any industry where an accident or malpractice could result in a place being uninhabitable for 10,000 - 100,000 years. It is immoral to saddle future generations with this burden, however slight you perceive the risk to be.

      Nuclear apologists need to wake up. Human error is always going to be a problem. Untill the world gets its act together and starts deploying more CANDU type reactors which by design cannot meltdown, I for one will still fight against nuclear power.

      You have an industry that deploys proven flawed designs from 40-60 years ago, and then runs the plants way longer than recommended lifetimes. The way the world currently does nuclear power, more accidents are inevitable.

      --
      As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
    3. Re:Blame Fukushima by ericloewe · · Score: 3, Insightful

      100% safety is impossible anywhere.

      Fukushima would've been a non-issue as well if the backup generators had actually been logically placed.

  2. Re:Still no deaths by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, because the US Navy's nuclear propulsion program and France's government run nuclear power program have had SO many problems...

    Wake up, the only way to SAFELY run a reactor is to put operational safety ahead of making money. Ironically you will probably make more money that way...

  3. Re:from the somebody's gonna say it dept: by sjames · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So you allege that a bizarre accident involving a paper clip, a fuel rod, and a tsunami transported undetectable ghost radiation back in time and deposited it in his esophagus?

  4. I know it's all fun and games here by kaizendojo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But what he did was heroic. Especially in a society that empahsizes respect for superiors. In the US, we wouldn't think twice about second guessing a higher up if we thought there was an inherent risk but this is almost unheard of in the Asian culture. Anata ni keii, Yoshida-san.