Actual date unknown: The current head of the NSC helped a nuclear utility successfully defend against a legal safety challenge in 2007. Talking about power failures: “We don’t expect it,” said Madarame, now chairman of the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan. “We need to draw a line somewhere because we will not be able to build anything if we have to take everything into account.”. The NSC is an “independent” body of academics and advisors.
Disaster rekindles doubts about courts’ nuclear plant rulings
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But the courts have almost invariably sided with the authorities, ruling the reactors are safe.
Yoshika Shiratori, 78, who represents a group of plaintiffs demanding the shutdown of the Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture, said what is unfolding at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant is exactly what she and others had feared.
“What we dreaded has become reality,” she said. “I often hear the argument that the recent quake was beyond the scope of expectations. But when someone says that, I can feel my chest begin to constrict.”
…
The court also heard testimony on the potential failure of backup generators used to cool reactors.
The debate became more than an academic exercise after the emergency diesel generators at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant failed following the March 11 quake and tsunami.
However, Haruki Madarame, then a professor of thermal engineering at the University of Tokyo, dismissed this possibility during testimony as an expert witness for Chubu Electric.
“We don’t expect it,” said Madarame, now chairman of the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan. “We need to draw a line somewhere because we will not be able to build anything if we have to take everything into account.”
In October 2007, the Shizuoka District Court rejected the suit, allowing the plant to continue operating. Asahi April 28
Fukushima 