Filed at 3:55 a.m. ET
TOKYO (AP) -- Officials at a Japanese nuclear plant where four
workers died in a recent accident defended themselves Friday against
charges of lax safety standards, saying there was no evidence the
plant was dangerous before the accident.
The Nuclear Safety Commission grilled officials from Kansai
Electrical Power Co. in a second day of hearings about the Aug. 9
accident, in which a cooling pipe burst at a plant in Mihama, 200
miles west of Tokyo, spewing boiling water and superheated steam on
workers.
Kansai Electric has faced heavy criticism after disclosing it had
not properly inspected the aging pipe for years despite the tendency
of such pipes to erode over time.
Company officials, however, said there was no reason to believe
the pipe was about to explode.
``We had no information that the portion of the pipe was posing
an immediate danger,'' said Kansai Electric executive Yonezo
Tsujikura. ``So we only planned to include that portion as part of a
list for the August inspection.''
That inspection had been scheduled for Aug. 14 -- days after the
accident occurred.
The company, which operates eight nuclear plants, is being
investigated on suspicion of negligence leading to death.
At the hearing, commission members raised questions about why the
operator was unaware of an imminent danger from the pipe even after
learning that the portion of the pipe had not been inspected for
nearly three decades.
Commission members argued that Kansai had a responsibility to
ensure the safety of the plant, but failed to have the proper
guidelines in place.
``The failure to inspect the part of the pipe near (the sections
considered vulnerable) shows you didn't have a system of multilayer
safety checks,'' said Koji Okamoto, a Tokyo University engineering
professor and a commission member.
Masashi Hirano, a nuclear reactor expert on the panel, also
criticized the company for concluding the part of the pipe that
ultimately burst was safe because other portions of the same pipe
passed inspections.
``I don't think you could have assumed that the portion was
safe,'' he said.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said on Friday that nine
other accidents caused by pipe erosion had been reported in the past
33 years, including one in July at another Kansai Electric plant. No
injuries and major damages were reported.
Agency officials also said recent safety inspection reports
showed Kansai Electric had skipped necessary inspections at 17
locations of cooling pipes at eight nuclear plants, including two
that are currently suspended for regular checks.
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