The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, the largest facility of its kind in the world, closed since the Fukushima accident in 2011, should have restarted in the summer of 2023, quite an event in Japan. The reboot was expected earlier, but had already been delayed after a series of internal bugs. But that was without counting the botch of an employee of TEPCO, the company that operates the plant.
incredible neglect
It is an unusual adventure experienced by a resident of Niigata Prefecture, on the west coast of Japan. According to Bloomberg, a resident of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa power plant, the most powerful in the world with its capacity of 8,212 gigawatts, came across documents marked TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company). Glancing at it, he discovers information regarding fire and flood management within the plant.
In a civic gesture, immediately alert the competent authorities. Alerted, TEPCO traced the documents to one of its employees, who was working from his home at the time of the events. On the way out, she put a wad of work documents on the roof of his car… and forgot them when he drove off! The pages flew into nature.
New postponement of the resumption of activity
Bad negligence. The National Nuclear Regulatory Authority, which oversees the safety protocols of Japan’s 33 operating reactors, decided last week to uphold a de facto ban on restarting operations at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant. The reason: inadequate preventive measures.
The distracted employee and his manager received a warning. But this latest capricious episode further undermines the regulator’s confidence in TEPCO. Who continues trying for his part to recover some 38 pages of the famous “forgotten” document. And he said that now he would make sure that “all of his staff follow strict rules about taking documents and information off site.”
Source: BFM TV
