Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: Prosecutors Request Prison Time For Executives (npr.org)

Long-time Slashdot reader reporter shared this article from NPR: The former chairman and two vice presidents of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. should spend five years in prison over the 2011 flooding and meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Japanese prosecutors say, accusing the executives of failing to prevent a foreseeable catastrophe. Prosecutors say the TEPCO executives didn't do enough to protect the nuclear plant, despite being told in 2002 that the Fukushima facility was vulnerable to a tsunami....

"It was easy to safeguard the plant against tsunami, but they kept operating the plant heedlessly," prosecutors said on Wednesday, according to The Asahi Shimbun. "That led to the deaths of many people." Former TEPCO Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, 78; former Vice President Ichiro Takekuro, 72; and former Vice President Sakae Muto, 68, face charges of professional negligence resulting in death and injury....

All three have pleaded not guilty in Tokyo District Court, saying they could not have predicted the tsunami.

Comments

It's About Time.

[MrKaos]

The entire Fukushima Disaster was more a disaster because it was entirely preventable. Whether is is malfeasance or nonfeasance it is plainly criminal because it is quite plainly negligence. For anyone with any doubts please refer to The official report of The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission.

This is an ongoing disaster, the destroyed reactors are still in an earthquake and flood prone area. TEPCO has proven itself completely corrupt, incompetent and incapable. It is in the interests of all Pacific nations to resolve and this issue demands an international response to control and contain it. It is clearly worse than Chernobyl.

I hope TEPCO's board rots in jail.

Re: It's About Time.

[Anonymous Coward]

The reactor design is fine. The backup systems were a total failure. The generators were installed too low are flooded. Power lines to the grid were washed away. Emergency procedures also required the shutdown of the only remaining source of power to keep the reactors cool, the reactors themselves.

Re: It's About Time.

[fustakrakich]

Ah, but you can't stop there. You gotta go after anybody who buys their products from them directly, or anybody in their stock portfolio, or pays taxes to a government that protects their copyrights and patents and international trade agreements. Yes, that means you!

Re:No excuses for bad engineering

[Anonymous Coward]

I live a few miles from a nuclear plant on the East Coast. It's entirely possible that a tsunami could hit this area (likely spawned off the African coast). It's also possible that a large hurricane could hit. We have also had earthquakes. Any of which might take out the power plant. It already operates on razor thin margins. Should they spend millions to protect against these natural disasters? Where will the money come from? Increase power costs and put the population under even more financial stress? Should the federal government give out a bunch of free money to fix it?

You should to a little tsunami research. Tsunamis can hit just about anywhere, but the chance of a large tsunami hitting any particular spot varies widely over short distances. It is dependent on shoreline shape, depth and profile of sea floor near the shore, and distance from potential sources. If you worry about a particular plant, you should look up its exact location, elevation, then find a tsunami study that details that exact piece of shoreline. Or, you can live in fear and ignorance if that pleases you.

Re:"The deaths of so many people"

[prisoner-of-enigma]

You seem to be out of the loop regarding something we call: news.

Then perhaps you'd be so good as to post a source link for your "news." Every article and news site I've read since the disaster says the death toll directly attributable to the meltdown is zero, precisely as the GP stated.

Should you present evidence from a reliable, unbiased source then I'm more than willing to accept it as fact. However, until then, all the "news" available on the accident refutes your assertion.

Re:In the US

[prisoner-of-enigma]

a known and well established narcissist, psychopath, compulsive liar, scammer, con-man and child molester

Wow! You do realize you just described pretty much every politician in office, right? If we held all elected officials to this standard, Washington would be a ghost town!

Not a bad idea, actually.

Re:No One Could Have Predicted the Tsunami

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody has been harmed by Fukushima radiation (not even the case where they 'legally' attributed a death with no medical basis

ahem

Japan has announced for the first time that a worker at the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant died after suffering radiation exposure.

The man, who was in his 50s, died from lung cancer that was diagnosed in 2016.

Japan's government had previously agreed that radiation caused illness in four workers but this is the first acknowledged death.

Funny definition of "nobody" you have there.

Re:No One Could Have Predicted the Tsunami

[lgw]

Except for Rand the corporate owners were not villains. The government trying to regulate and protect the citizens was the villain as well as anyone with social consciousness.
Rand glorified the dog eat dog capitalism. She was too naive to think that people can raise upon merit.

If you're going to criticize, at least read the Cliff Notes, so that you can do better than being completely wrong about the work you're complaining about. Plenty of stuff to criticize in the actual books she actually wrote, without just making stuff up.

The premise of Atlas Shrugged was that there are very few competent CEOs, heads of R&D, operations managers, etc, in a sea of incompetence, and if those rare competent leaders were suddenly out of the picture, the whole economy would collapse.