Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission head dismissed seismologist who predicted "nuclear earthquake disaster" as "a nobody"

Bloomberg reports that the current head of the Japanese federal government's Nuclear Safety Commission, Haruki Madarame, once dismissed seismologist Katsuhiko Ishibashi (pictured at left) as "a nobody in nuclear engineering" after he predicted in 1997 the risk of a "nuclear earthquake disaster" at the three reactor Hamaoka nuclear power plant southwest of Tokyo. Ishibashi's warning accurately described what later actually happened at Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4. Former Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan successfully pressured for the closure of Hamaoko nuclear power plant soon after the earthquake-tsunami-nuclear catastrophe as a precaution.

Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company officials likewise ignored warnings by Tohoku University geologist Koji Minoura in the 1990s that giant tsunamis had hit Japan’s northeast coast three times in the last 3,000 years.

Ishibashi now warns about the earthquake and tsunami risks to a 13 reactor cluster on a single bay on the west side of Japan's main island. Takahama Units 1 to 4, Ohi Units 1 to 4, Mihama Units 1 to 3, and Tsuruga Units 1 and 2 line the coast of Wakasa Bay, which was determined to be riddled with earthquake faultlines in just the past several years.