Noted geologist worries warning signs will continue to go unheeded
Noted geologist worries warning signs will continue to go unheeded
By REIJI YOSHIDA
Staff writer
Toyo University professor Mitsuhisa Watanabe, a polemicist on active faults, has fought a long losing battle against Japan’s nuclear industrial complex.Mitsuhisa Watanabe
His research, ringing the alarm bell about active faults under and near nuclear power plants, has always fallen on deaf ears.
[…]But now the Fukushima nuclear crisis may have finally changed the rules of the game.
Watanabe, thanks to recommendations from academic societies, now sits on the five-member expert panel investigating possible active faults beneath the Oi nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture.
[…]
“Active faults run parallel in many cases. If you determine one fault is active, the possibility becomes higher that nearby parallel faults may also be active,” Watanabe told The Japan Times during a recent interview. “You need to stop the reactors to conduct thorough surveys to check all of them first.”All of the other members of the expert panel have admitted that the fault, named F-6, could be active and pose a serious danger.
Continue reading at Fault study at Oi nuke plant may impact all offline reactors
