Full report of the Japan Diet's “Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Committee”

The English translation of the National Diet of Japan’s “The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Committee” is now publicly available.  The central message of the extensive investigation, first published in Japanese along with a translation of the Executive Summary in July 2012, is that the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe was “a profoundly man-made disaster” despite being triggered by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami.   The special investigation concluded that the on-going nuclear disaster was the result of “willful negligence” and the collusion between an entrenched bureaucracy of government, a “captured regulator” and the nuclear industry “to put their organizational interests ahead of their paramount duty to protect public safety.”

Chairman Kiyoshi Kurokawa warns, “The consequences of negligence at Fukushima stand out as catastrophic, but the mindset that supported it can be found across Japan. In recognizing that fact, each of us should reflect on our responsibility as individuals in a democratic society.” In fact, Kurokawa’s words and the content of this report are more urgently addressed and need to be heeded by citizens of the United States and the other nuclear states before the next nuclear catastrophe as the result of an identical formula of willful negligence, collusion to prioritize production over safety and the Nuclear Regulatory Capture.