TEPCO is the Japanese company that owns and operated the Fukushima nuclear power plant that suffered the devastating accident in March of 2011 following an earthquake and tsunami. As might be expected, this accident and the aftermath delivered a serious blow to the reputation of TEPCO. Reputation is important for any company anywhere in the world but especially so for a Japanese company. In order to help the company recover from the damage inflicted by the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, TEPCO enlisted a British-American lawyer named Barbara Judge who was once the chairperson of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. Beyond TEPCO, Abe, the new Japanese Prime Minister wants to export nuclear technology and it is hoped that Barbara Judge will be able to help restore confidence in the whole Japanese nuclear industry.
Mz. Judge is going to be the safety tsar for TEPCO. She is deputy chairperson of the company’s nuclear reform monitoring committee and head of several new safety commissions. She says that her mission is to make TEPCO a leader in nuclear safety. Her comments on the nuclear accident acknowledge that there were not clear lines of communication between the various players after the disaster and that this situation interfered with a proper response.
Fear of radiation is one of the big problems that Mz. Judge emphasizes. She says that there is more radiation exposure flying in an airplane that there would be walking through a nuclear plant. So her point seems to be that fear of radiation is overblown and that people need to be realistic. Then she turns to stoking fear of power black outs, dependence on outside sources of energy and sky high energy prices if Japan does not turn all its nuclear reactors back on and build new reactors. Apparently fear of not using nuclear power is just fine with Mz. Judge.
My problem with TEPCO’s plan for rebirth is that we have already seen this movie several times. TEPCO has been caught in the past seriously violating safety regulations. After criticism from the government, they have promised to clean up their act and be a model company with excellent safety culture and public transparency. Years go by and they are caught again. Once again they swear that this time they are really going to make positive changes. After going through this cycle several times, they knew of the danger of a tsumami and yet refused to move a critical backup generator above the level of a possible flood before the accident at Fukushima. Following the accident, there have been serious charges of unsafe practices and lack of transparency during the recovery from the disaster.
My great fear is that once again TEPCO will make promises it can’t or won’t keep despite the importation of Mz. Judge and that another accident will happen due to their negligence. This threatens not only Japan but also other countries who are buying Japanese nuclear technology from companies that cannot be trusted to fulfill their promises of safety and competence.
Barbara Judge:
