Opinion ID: 4528669
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The FNPP Disaster

Text: In the late 1960s, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) commissioned the construction of the FNPP in Fukushima, which is located along the eastern seaboard of Japan. TEPCO is the licensed operator of the FNPP. The FNPP contained six boiling water nuclear reactors, all designed by GE. GE constructed three of the reactors itself (Units 1, 2, and 6) and provided the designs and expertise for the remaining reactors (Units 3, 4, and 5), which were constructed by the Japanese companies Toshiba Corporation and Hitachi Limited. GE also designed the rest of the facilities at the FNPP and participated regularly in the maintenance of the facility over many years. 3 We note that the facts herein described, while often undisputed by the parties, are allegations, not findings. -4- On March 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake shook Japan and triggered a 45-foot tsunami. When the tsunami struck Japan's eastern shoreline, it flooded the FNPP, disabled its generators, and destroyed the emergency cooling pumps. The resulting lack of power caused the FNPP's cooling systems to malfunction, and as a result, the nuclear reactor cores heated to their melting point and then disabled the valves used to vent the FNPP's radioactive material. Unable to vent, hydrogen gas accumulated in the FNPP's nuclear reactors. Despite TEPCO's and the Japanese authorities' efforts to prevent a catastrophe, four days after the tsunami hit the FNPP, the accumulation of hydrogen gas caused Units 1, 3, and 4 to explode, which released toxic radioactive matter into the surrounding environment. By the time of the first explosion, the Japanese government had evacuated everyone within a twenty-kilometer radius of the power plant. Fukushima Prefecture suffered unfathomable damage from the nuclear accident. Many of the residents who were evacuated lost their homes, their jobs, their land, and their children's schools. Much of the area surrounding the FNPP (including some areas beyond the evacuation zone) remains uninhabitable today due to radioactive exposure. The National Diet of Japan (the Japanese legislature) convened an independent commission, the Fukushima Nuclear Accident -5- Independent Investigation Commission (the Commission), to investigate the FNPP disaster and to prepare a report about its findings. After 900 hours of hearings and 1,167 interviews, the Commission concluded that the accident was a disaster 'Made in Japan' and catalogued a multitude of errors and willful negligence . . . by TEPCO, regulators[,] and the [Japanese] government. The Commission also concluded that TEPCO had overlooked new scientific information regarding tsunami risks, failed to implement severe-accident countermeasures consistent with international standards, and generally had inadequate emergency procedures and training.