Green Action confronts Economy, Trade, and Industry Minister Edano over earthquake risks at Ohi nuclear power plant

On July 1st, Aileen Mioko Smith, executive director of Green Action Japan, sent the following report on her confrontation with Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) Yukio Edano, regarding seismic risks at Ohi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture on the Sea of Japan, the first to restart since the 3/11/11 beginning of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe:

"Government Committee to Deliberate Earthquake Fault (F-6) at Ohi Nuclear Power Plant

Green Action Executive Director Meets METI Minister Yukio Edano

On Friday, 29 June, NISA [the federal Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, a subdivision of the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, METI] announced that the earthquake fault under the Ohi Plant will be on the agenda of NISA's Earthquake-Tsunami Expert Advisory Group. This is a breakthrough since it is an admission that this issue must be formally examined. The meeting will take place on Wednesday 3 July (14:00~16:30). Citizens can have observer status at the meeting. Yuichi Sugiyama, interviewed earlier by Kyodo on this issue, is one of the committee members.

The advisory committee meeting comes a day and a half after Ohi Unit 3 is to be started. Citizens are demanding that an on-site investigation of the F-6 fault be undertaken before restart of Ohi Units 3 and 4. The investigation would only take a maximum of one week.

On 29 June, Green Action director met with METI Minister Yukio Edano when she accompanied Ben Hashimoto (Lower House), one of the five Diet members who took part in the multi-partisan Diet member delegation which inspected the Ohi nuclear power plant on 27 June with tectonic geomorphologist Mitsuhisa Watanabe, Toyo University.

Smith challenged METI minister Edano when he said that no new information has been released concerning the issue. She stated that crucial information on the F-6 fault had been suppressed by NISA and Kansai Electric [Power Company, KEPCO] when the back-check examination of Ohi earthquake faults was undertaken by government-appointed experts in 2010. After this back-check, NISA examined the crucial information (the Sketch of the Nortwest Wall) and issued its report stating that F-6 was not an active fault. It is unclear if any experts were involved in this determination made after the back-check.

Edano's reply to Smith was, 'I am not here to debate this issue with citizens.'

Earlier in the day Edano addressed the Ohi F-6 Fault issue during his regular press conference."

Edano was serving as the Chief Cabinet Secretary, of primary spokesman, for Prime Minister Kan when the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe broke out on 3/11/11. Amongst the most infamous statements made by Edano at the time was the claim that there was "no immediate health risk" to the public. The recently departed Dr. Rosalie Bertell warned about such deceptions in the title of her classic book, No Immediate Danger?

Seismologists have warned about earthquake risks at Ohi.