‘It couldn’t have been predicted,’ claimed Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) – the operators of the Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima – after the earthquake that struck northern Japan in March. However, the Fukushima crisis is exactly the kind of disaster that Japan’s anti-nuclear lobby has been warning of for decades. The Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center (CNIC), a Tokyo-based network of scientists, activists and concerned citizens, spearheads the movement for a non-nuclear Japan. It has repeatedly warned that Japan’s nuclear power plants will, over their operating lives, experience stronger earthquakes and larger tsunamis than they were designed to withstand.
The CNIC has documented an endemic lack of preparedness for earthquakes at Japan’s nuclear facilities. In the past decade, earthquakes of a much lower intensity than the recent disaster have damaged nuclear reactors. The July 2007 Niigata Chuetsu earthquake caused TEPCO’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa (KK) nuclear plant – then the largest nuclear plant in the world – to leak radioactive water into the Sea of Japan. After the accident, KK was completely shut down for 21 months to allow upgrades to its seismic proofing. Local residents continue to protest against TEPCO’s decision to partially restart the plant and are angry at TEPCO’s opaque decision-making. According to the CNIC, information released concerning the safety of the plant in the event of another major earthquake inadequately addresses citizens’ concerns.
