ID :
203360
Wed, 08/24/2011 - 18:29
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/203360
The shortlink copeid
TEPCO reported possibility of huge tsunami to gov't before March 11
TOKYO, Aug. 24 Kyodo - Tokyo Electric Power Co. calculated in 2008 that a tsunami higher than 10 meters could hit its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant but has since taken no countermeasures, officials at the Nuclear Industrial Safety Agency said Wednesday.
A manager at the utility, known as TEPCO, reported the calculation to the agency verbally on March 7 this year before the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami hit the plant on March 11, the officials said.
The agency instructed TEPCO to adopt countermeasures.
TEPCO made the calculation in April-May 2008 as the government changed screening standards for earthquake-resistant designs in 2006.
For the calculation, TEPCO used a government earthquake forecast and assumed that a quake with a magnitude of around 8.2 would jolt the ocean trench off the coast of Sanriku in the Tohoku region to the Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture.
The quake would cause a tsunami as high as 10.2 meters to hit the Nos. 5 and 6 reactors at the Fukushima plant, the utility calculated. In addition, the No. 2 reactor would be subject to a tsunami of 9.3 meters and the Nos. 1, 3 and 4 reactors to one of 8.4 to 8.7 meters.
While the initial calculation put the maximum height of tsunami at 5.7 meters, the March 11 disaster caused a tidal wave to reach up to 15 meters.
The agency reported the 2008 calculation to a third-party panel in charge of examining nuclear accidents, the officials said.
On Wednesday, a TEPCO official brushed the calculation aside merely as part of its studies.
The agency also received an oral report from TEPCO in September 2009 on the possibility of a tsunami higher than 6 meters reaching the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
A manager at the utility, known as TEPCO, reported the calculation to the agency verbally on March 7 this year before the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami hit the plant on March 11, the officials said.
The agency instructed TEPCO to adopt countermeasures.
TEPCO made the calculation in April-May 2008 as the government changed screening standards for earthquake-resistant designs in 2006.
For the calculation, TEPCO used a government earthquake forecast and assumed that a quake with a magnitude of around 8.2 would jolt the ocean trench off the coast of Sanriku in the Tohoku region to the Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture.
The quake would cause a tsunami as high as 10.2 meters to hit the Nos. 5 and 6 reactors at the Fukushima plant, the utility calculated. In addition, the No. 2 reactor would be subject to a tsunami of 9.3 meters and the Nos. 1, 3 and 4 reactors to one of 8.4 to 8.7 meters.
While the initial calculation put the maximum height of tsunami at 5.7 meters, the March 11 disaster caused a tidal wave to reach up to 15 meters.
The agency reported the 2008 calculation to a third-party panel in charge of examining nuclear accidents, the officials said.
On Wednesday, a TEPCO official brushed the calculation aside merely as part of its studies.
The agency also received an oral report from TEPCO in September 2009 on the possibility of a tsunami higher than 6 meters reaching the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
