Fukushima, guilty silence
ルモンドの原文はフランス語です。引用先:http://bit.ly/fOrP9l Updated 26.03.11 | 1:59 p.m.Representatives of TEPCO, Thursday, March 23. AFP / GO TAKAYAMATOKYO PENPALS - Sub-advised by the authorities, increasingly aware of the risk of a disaster they are mostly unable to assess the seriousness, the Japanese are now more worried than done surface today, from reading the press and through expert testimony nuclear broadcast on private television channels or on blogs, the nauseating background of this drama: the power of what, for shame, called the "nuclear lobby".A rich and powerful whose heart beats to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), which has the upper hand on the nuclear energy policy and the ramifications of which include the Federation of utilities ( FEPC), the Agency for Industrial and Nuclear Safety (NISA), industry groups who build power plants - Toshiba and Hitachi in mind - and traders.This lobby, which sees former senior officials of ministries and agencies related to nuclear "slippers" in power companies, has mastered the art of lock information. It supports important advertising campaigns in newspapers and on television to ensure that nuclear power is perfectly safe.The coming to power in 2009, a new majority has not changed the situation because the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is based on the powerful trade union federation Rengo, one of whose main component is the branch grouping workers of energy, very attached to nuclear power.This large-scale collusion between senior management, supervisory agencies, builders and operators of power plants is not only silence the opposition but also remove any question about nuclear power. This is not for lack of evidence - documented - neglect, lies by omission or pure falsification. These actions were brought in 2002 by the questioning of the ten power companies in the country to cover incidents in the 1970s, early in Outer Islands. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), owner and operator of power plants in Fukushima, was the first sighting.Added this time of the testimony - called to be checked and put into perspective - alumni Tepco. But for now, "run of the mill," these revelations are chilling. If they reflect reality, it appears that the operators - Tepco, certainly, but also its counterparts - have reduced profitability in the short term before the imperative of long-term security, or, at best, have not sufficiently addressed the risk in a country with high seismic activity and tsunamis.Fukushima plants were designed to withstand a wave of 5.5 meters by referring to the one that struck Chile in 1956 ... The reactors have withstood the earthquake and stopped automatically, but the cooling system, insufficiently protected, has stopped working. Two Toshiba engineers who helped design the plant in Fukushima, quoted by the daily Tokyo Shimbun , consider that a "low risk" was used as the basis of calculation.Lip service, the Minister of Economy has acknowledged that "when the crisis has been contained, we will examine the management of Tepco" . True, but in the meantime, how many victims will it counted?A former engineer at Toshiba, who testified anonymously, is more blunt: "This is not a natural disaster that Japan is facing, but a disaster caused by man." A long article in the Wall Street Journal takes up the data presented by Hidekatsu Yoshi , Communist deputy and former nuclear engineer who has demonstrated, in a book published in 2010 based on documents of the NISA, the central Fukushima is one that, throughout Japan, has experienced the largest number of incidents, including a dozen accidents between 2005 and 2009, and that its employees were the most exposed to radiation during the past decade. Also pointed to the use for plant maintenance, sub-contractors often inexperienced, who are now paying a heavy price in the struggle against the disaster.The delayed reaction of TEPCO is also at stake. "TEPCO took into account the danger slowly" , said a senior official news agency Kyodo. In the first two days following the earthquake and tsunami, the need to preserve the equipment seems to have prevailed over the consideration of risk to populations.The 8 employees of Areva, a French world leader in nuclear power, which were present on site during the earthquake, quickly realized the danger they were among the first to go. Areva had never yet made any fear about the risks posed by power of his client Tepco.Mesmer and Philippe Philippe PonsTo read in Le Monde dated Sunday March 28 27/lundi- In Tokyo, despair and anger of those who lost everything- The Prime Minister and the government are notably absent from the crisis- Iodine, cesium, plutonium ... : A compendium of radioactivity- The utility TEPCO, arrogant and secretiveArticle published in the edition of 27.03.11