“The most dangerous nuclear power plant in Japan ”

Local Shizuoka TV

A local Shizuoka TV station has reported about a recent police investigation, where the technician responsible for safety designs at the Hamaoka nuclear power plants in Shizuoka prefecture explained why he altered safety data to conceal design flaws. “I had children and there was not enough time”, he said.

33 years ago he worked at Toshiba, which built the reactors for Chubu Electric Power Co. Today, he is 63 years old and lives in Tokyo . He has recently testified and admitted falsifying and altering safety testing data related to earthquake tests.

The testimony revealed that when various vibrational tests were performed, data showed that the design could not withstand a major earthquake. Several attempts were made to strengthen the design, but tests still showed problems. In spite of this, the construction went ahead and the building, Hamaoka's second reactor, was completed in 1971.

Based on these tests, an additional three reactors were constructed, including Japan 's largest nuclear plant which generates 1.38 MW. A total of five nuclear reactors are now in the area, which experts say is “the most dangerous nuclear power plant in Japan ”.

During the April, 2005 testimony, the retired technician described how test data was simply pulled out of a report, so that the construction could go ahead. Had the data been made public, there is no way that the reactor could have been built. Now, he accepts responsibility for what he did, and wants the Hamaoka reactors to be shut down. He also says there should be a third-party examination and investigation of the safety concerns.