Panel Challenges Japan's Account of Nuclear Disaster

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http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/01/16/business/global/independent-panel-to-start-inquiry-into-japans-nuclear-crisis.xml

Panel Challenges Japan's Account of Nuclear Disaster

By HIROKO TABUCHI
Published: January 16, 2012

TOKYO - A powerful and independent
panel of specialists appointed by
Japan's Parliament is challenging the
government's account of the accident
at a Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power
plant, and will start its own
investigation into the disaster -
including an inquiry into how much
the March earthquake may have
damaged the plant's reactors even
before the tsunami.

The bipartisan panel with powers of
subpoena is part of Japan's efforts to
investigate the nuclear calamity, which
has displaced more than 100,000
people, rendered wide swaths of land
unusable for decades and spurred
public criticism that the government
has been more interested in protecting
vested industry interests than in
discovering how three reactors were
allowed to melt down and release
huge amounts of radiation.

<snip>

"The lessons Japan can learn are
globally relevant, because such a
disaster can happen again," he said.
Mr. Kurokawa's committee has
garnered attention because some
members have been openly critical of
Japan's nuclear policy, including
Katsuhiko Ishibashi, a seismologist
who has long warned of the risks
Japan's volatile geology poses to its 54
nuclear reactors.

The panel includes Mitsuhiko Tanaka,
a former nuclear engineer at Babcock
Hitachi who has argued that the quake
was likely to have damaged reactors at
the plant to the extent that meltdowns
would have occurred without the
tsunami. Tepco disputes that view.
Mr. Tanaka worked on the design of
the reactors.

<snip>