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Japanese engineer
worried by nuclear power
NUCLEAR OPPONENT: Yoichi Kikuchi said he was
shocked by the working conditions he saw during a 2006 visit to the construction
site of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant
By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
A Japanese engineer who oversaw the construction of two nuclear power plants
spoke in Taipei yesterday about the danger of such plants and urged Taiwan not
to let the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant go into operation.
During the seven years he worked at General Electric Co (GE), Yoichi Kikuchi was
involved in the construction of the No. 2 reactor at the Tokai nuclear power
plant and the No. 6 reactor at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
He left the company in 1980.
In 2002, he became concerned about the possible dangers of a major earthquake in
the area near the Hamaoka nuclear power plant, about 180km southwest of Tokyo,
and participated in anti-nuclear protests urging the plant¡¦s closure.
The plant was shut in 2011 after the Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster.
Kikuchi visited the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant construction site in Gongliao
District (°^¼d), New Taipei City (·s¥_¥«), in 2006 and gave it a score of three
points out of a possible 100, only for ¡§the generosity of Taiwan Power Co [Taipower]
for letting me visit the plant.¡¨
¡§I was shocked to see that conditions at the plant¡¦s construction site were more
ill-managed than the construction of ordinary buildings I often see in Japan ...
for example, I saw a worker welding by himself, with no supervisor at his side,¡¨
he said of the 2006 visit.
He said in his experience as a directing supervisor at the Japanese plants, all
welding work needed overseers and had to pass many checks, but Taipower answered
his questions about unsupervised welding by saying that it ¡§trusted the
downstream unit,¡¨ which he found unbelievable.
The unpredictability of earthquakes is what concerns him most about nuclear
safety issues, he said, even if plants are not located on fault lines.
Taiwan and Japan both face the threat of major earthquakes , many of which have
occured at previously unknown blind thrust faults, with unforeseen severity, he
said.
¡§The designs of nuclear power plants are already flawed and more flaws appear
during construction, as many parts of the work are contracted out and the
contractors mostly tend to conceal the mistakes they make for fear of not
getting contracts for future projects,¡¨ he said.
Construction work at plants in Japan is often far from perfect and the working
culture is filled with lies, he said, adding that he did not think this was a
problem just in Japan.
A man in the audience surnamed Kuo (³¢), who said he worked at Taiwan¡¦s nuclear
plants for almost 30 years, including the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant site, said
construction at the new plant was conducted according to precise procedures and
he could ¡§guarantee that it could at least get 70 to 80 points [out of a
possible 100],¡¨ which should be ¡§OK¡¨ in terms of safety.
Kikuchi cited several examples in Japan of broken components which were
discovered after reactors began operating, exposing workers doing repairs to
high levels of radiation and causing the loss of large amounts of money in
stopping the reactors to be repaired. Even today, the skills and technology for
building nuclear power plants are immature and limited, and examinations or
checks cannot guarantee safety, he said.
Nuclear power plants are so complicated that most technicians are ¡§only
specialists at a specific part of the plant,¡¨ he said.
It is unbelievable that any ¡§expert¡¨ can guarantee the safety of a nuclear power
plant, Kikuchi said.
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