震災特集（４） ― cover-up

福島の原子力発電所での放射能漏れの恐れは未だくすぶり続けている問題です。そして、何よりも世界中がその動向を注視しています。

11日の地震発生の直後にドイツに住む友人から安否を気遣うメールをもらいました。とにかく地震の揺れのインパクトと鉄道などの交通網の遮断でパニックになっていた私は、メールの内容がどちらかというと原発の状況を案じていたのに多少の温度差を感じたのですが、海外に住む人々にとって今回の震災の最大の関心事は原発が受けるダメージの行方だったようです。そのことに今頃になって気がつき始めました。

さて、福島での原発危機への対応や計画停電の実施体制、情報提供などが関係者の不信感を招いていますが、政府や東京電力関係者に隠ぺい体質があるとは思いたくありません。

しかしながら、海外メディアの目は日本国民よりももっと厳しいのでしょうか、批判の言葉がちらほらと見えます。


TOKYO (AP) — Behind Japan's escalating nuclear crisis sits a scandal-ridden energy industry in a comfy relationship with government regulators often willing to overlook safety lapses.
Leaks of radioactive steam and workers contaminated with radiation are just part of the disturbing catalog of accidents that have occurred over the years and been belatedly reported to the public, if at all.

In one case, workers hand-mixed uranium in stainless steel buckets, instead of processing by machine, so the fuel could be reused, exposing hundreds of workers to radiation. Two later died.

"Everything is a secret," said Kei Sugaoka, a former nuclear power plant engineer in Japan who now lives in California. "There's not enough transparency in the industry."

Sugaoka worked at the same utility that runs the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant where workers are racing against time to prevent a full meltdown following Friday's 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami.

In 1989 Sugaoka received an order that horrified him: edit out footage showing cracks in plant steam pipes in video being submitted to regulators. Sugaoka alerted his superiors in the Tokyo Electric Power Co., but nothing happened. He decided to go public in 2000. Three Tepco executives lost their jobs.

The legacy of scandals and cover-ups over Japan's half-century reliance on nuclear power has strained its credibility with the public. That mistrust has been renewed this past week with the crisis at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant. No evidence has emerged of officials hiding information in this catastrophe. But the vagueness and scarcity of details offered by the government and Tepco — and news that seems to grow worse each day — are fueling public anger and frustration.
(Bungling, cover-ups define Japanese nuclear power. The Associated Press. March 17, 2011.)