The much vilified operator of the tsunami-hit nuclear power plant at Fukushima released a report on Wednesday [20 Jun 2012] that said the company never hid information, never underplayed the extent of fuel meltdown and certainly never considered abandoning the ravaged site. It asserts that government interference in the disaster response created confusion and delays.<\/p>\n
The report, inches thick, was compiled by an in-house executive committee, overseen by a third-party panel of experts and presented to reporters after deep bows by a line of executives. The company stuck to a defense it has offered since the earliest days of the crisis: that no company could have predicted or prepared for last year\u2019s magnitude 9.0 quake and subsequent tsunami.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tsunami we experienced was just that big,\u201d said the Tepco executive vice president Masao Yamazaki, who led the investigation. \u201cThe workers on the ground did their utmost under extreme conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The claims appear to be an effort by the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, to reclaim some measure of its former standing by distancing itself from the layers of missteps in the nuclear disaster, which left more than 100,000 people displaced and areas uninhabitable possibly for decades.<\/p>\n
Over the last year, new details of the disaster have emerged that build a picture of an organization that ignored or concealed that its reactors might be vulnerable<\/a> to quakes and tsunamis, used its close links with regulators and nuclear experts to hijack nuclear policy and \u2014 since the accident \u2014 has worked vigilantly to shut out close scrutiny of the ravaged plant\u2019s condition.<\/p>\n The report comes as the government is pushing to restore public confidence in nuclear energy<\/a> and restart Japan\u2019s reactor fleet<\/a>.<\/p>\n Critics were skeptical. \u201cThe report is too full of excuses,\u201d said Masako Sawai of the Citizens\u2019 Nuclear Information Center, an anti-nuclear policy group.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we don\u2019t get to the bottom of this accident, how can we prevent future ones?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n Japan temporarily went nuclear-free in early May, as the last of its 54 reactors shut down for maintenance, and local opposition prevented others from coming back online.<\/p>\n Last week, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda gave the go-ahead to restart two reactors in western Japan, a decision that has elicited relief from business leaders worried about a power crunch, but much furor from a still-jittery public. To quell public fears, Japan\u2019s Parliament approved legislation on Wednesday to set up an independent regulator to oversee the nuclear industry. Previously, the industry had been policed by the same body tasked with promoting it.<\/p>\n Still, the jitters were reinforced on Wednesday after an alarm went off at one of those two reactors warning of falling water levels in a cooling tank for its power generator. But later checks revealed no leaks and the restart is proceeding as planned, the reactor\u2019s operator said.<\/p>\n Tepco itself is pushing to reopen a large nuclear power plant on Japan\u2019s northwestern shore. The company faces billions of dollars in compensation claims, as well as trillions of yen in costs of decommissioning the damaged reactors at Fukushima, a cost that has left its finances in ruins and prompted the government to effectively nationalize it.<\/p>\n The report\u2019s most fervent denials concern whether the company asked to abandon the plant at the height of the crisis \u2014 a move that experts say could have contaminated a far wider stretch of eastern Japan, possibly even Tokyo. The prime minister at the time of the disaster, Naoto Kan, has suggested in testimony to a public inquiry that he had received such a request from Tepco, a request he overrode.<\/p>\n But Tepco claimed that Mr. Kan had misunderstood a request to evacuate just some of the less-essential workers.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is an undeniable fact that our employees stayed \u2014 or even voluntarily returned to the plant \u2014 to bring it under control,\u201d the report said. \u201cMultiple reactors were in trouble, all power was lost, there were frequent aftershocks and tsunami warnings. But still, our employees stayed at their posts,\u201d Mr. Yamazaki emphasized.<\/p>\n And Tepco struck back at Mr. Kan, saying his meddling interfered in its disaster response. Mr. Kan flew to the plant in a helicopter the morning after the tsunami, and at times stepped in to give orders, causing \u201cunnecessary confusion,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\nA version of this article appeared in print on June 21, 2012, on page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: Nuclear Operator in Japan Exonerates Itself in Report.<\/em><\/h6>\n