A citizen's group in Japan has asked the government to fire the chairman of a committee investigating earthquake damage at the world's biggest nuclear power plant, saying he may have prejudged the station's safety.
The Citizen's Nuclear Information Center last week sought the removal of Haruki Madarame after newspapers quoted him as saying that all seven reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant could be restarted in two years. The plant was shut after the July 16 quake caused radioactive leaks.
“We question the academic ethics of someone who would make such a statement even before inspecting the reactors,'' the Center, which opposes atomic energy, said in the July 31 letter to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
The 20-member panel headed by Madarame meets in Kashiwazaki city for the first time tomorrow. Tokyo Electric has acknowledged 69 cases of earthquake-related damage at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant, including leaked radioactive water and spilled nuclear waste containers. The government ordered that the plant remain shut until its safety is assured.
“Anyone who would make such imprudent comments isn't the right person to lead this investigation,'' said Hideyuki Ban, co- director of the group. “How can he guarantee safety?''
An official at Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency confirmed the receipt of the letter. The safety watchdog has no plans to fire the committee chairman, said the official who declined to be identified.
`Take a Long Time'
The Asahi newspaper on July 25 quoted Madarame as saying it will take “about two years to restart all seven of the reactors'' at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant.
Madarame, a professor of engineering at the University of Tokyo, said today his remarks were misunderstood. At the time there was speculation it would take a few months to restart the reactors, and “I just meant to suggest that this is going to take a long time,'' he said by telephone.
Tokyo Electric's nuclear safety reports have come under scrutiny because of admissions by the company in March that it had faked safety documents on more than a dozen occasions.
Those revelations were a repeat of a 2002 scandal that led to public apologies from the company, the resignation of its chairman and president, and a government shutdown of all 17 of its reactors. The utility said that year it had falsified reports on power plant repairs for about 20 years.
IAEA Inspection
Separately, the International Atomic Energy Agency yesterday began a four-day assessment of the earthquake damages to the nuclear plant. Six inspectors, led by Philippe Jamet, director of the agency's Installation Nuclear Safety Division, arrived Aug. 5.
The inspection team today planned to conduct examination inside the reactor buildings, the Kyodo News reported. Jamet said his team yesterday took a tour of the plant and was briefed by officials from Tokyo Electric on the fire at one of the reactors and low-level radiation leaks following the earthquake, the report said.
