Japan is corrupt — like the United States — a follow up to the Fukushima nuclear power disaster

© 2019 Peter Free

 

19 September 2019

 

 

No matter how painful the messes that their greed and stupidity cause, Fat Cats skate

 

Today, the Japan Times reported that:

 

 

Three former top executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. on Thursday were acquitted of professional negligence resulting in death and injury related to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis. [See what that was, here.]

 

The Tokyo District Court ruled that it was not realistic for the former executives to have predicted all possible tsunami scenarios and thereby prevent the triple core meltdown, which forced hundreds of thousands of residents to evacuate and contaminated wide areas of the prefecture.

 

In concluding the two-year trial, presiding Judge Kenichi Nagabuchi ruled that the trio could not have foreseen the 9.0 magnitude earthquake, which caused massive tsunami and knocked out critical cooling systems at the three reactors, and heavily damaged other facilities at the Fukushima plant on the northeast coast.

 

© 2019 Magdalena Osumi, Former Tepco executives found not guilty of criminal negligence in Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan Times (19 September 2019)

 

 

Yes, just as it is impossible to anticipate that water is wet and makes waves.

 

Analyses after the Fukushima radiation release indicated that:

 

 

Tepco's reactor types were wrongly selected

 

the site where they were located was exceptionally vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis

 

the reactors' protective seawall was much too low

 

the facility was poorly designed to properly channel seawater intrusion

 

and

 

Tepco's response to the disaster was completely inadequate.

 

 

Nevertheless, Tepco's fat cats now happily amble away from responsibility.

 

 

In Japan's arguably more admirable days

 

Tepco's executives might have committed ritual suicide (seppuku) as a matter of personal honor.

 

 

The moral? — Laissez faire and plutocracy breed looting and murder

 

Where greed is incentivized — and honorable behavior is materially discouraged — humanity arguably loses.