#Fukushima I Nuke Plant Accident: TEPCO Didn't Procure Fire Engine from Its Own Thermal Power Plant Because It Was Afraid of Breaking the Law

Remember my post about how TEPCO employees at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant tried to "buy car batteries" in their desperate efforts to save the reactors from core melt, instead of just taking them? TEPCO headquarters and Toshiba also dutifully follow the law and waited for the permit to transport batteries on the highway.

I also wrote then that hardly any Japanese thought it odd that TEPCO hadn't just taken the batteries or that Toshiba hadn't simply shipped the batteries without a permit. Reaction from almost all Japanese who read the news was either:

• "Why didn't they have enough money?" (Or worse, "Why didn't they use credit cards?"

• "Why didn't the national government issue them the permit?"

• "We need more laws and regulations for emergencies!"

Asahi Shinbun, who watched all teleconference videos disclosed by TEPCO, has put their findings in a book. One of Asahi reporters who attended the early press conferences tweeted the link to a site that has the summary of the book.

According to the summary of Asahi's book at the site (which seems to be run by several anonymous journalists from the established media companies in Japan), TEPCO, who was incapable of deciding when to follow the law and when not to follow the law (like in an emergency after the nuclear accident), decided to follow the law also when it came to procuring a fire engine to cool the reactors.

From Book Navi website (1/9/2013; part):

消防車の確保で言えば、福島第一原発から南に20kmと一番近かった広野火力発電所の消防車は福島第一原発に投入されることはなかった。その理由は、広野火力発電所は石油コンビナート等災害防止法に基づく特定事業所で、大型消防車1台を「備え付けなければならない」と義務づけられており、広野にはその1台の消防車しかなく、なけなしの消防車を福島第一原発に送ることによる法令逸脱のリスクを誰も負わなかったということだ。誰かが、広野の消防車はあきらめようと判断しているのではなく、この消防車について誰も語らなくなってしまうという怖さが見て取れる。

As to procuring fire engines, the fire engine at Hirono Thermal Power Station, closest to Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant at only 20 kilometers south of the plant, was never brought to Fukushima I Nuke Plant. The reason was that Hirono Thermal Power Station was designated as "specific station" under the Act on the Prevention of Disasters in Petroleum Industrial Complexes and Other Petroleum Facilities. The Act obliges the Hirono Power Station to always have one large fire engine. There was only one such fire engine. If the engine were to be sent to Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, there was a risk of deviating from the law. No one wanted to take that risk. It was not that someone actively decided they should give up on bringing the fire engine from Hirono. It was scarier, as people simply stopped talking about this fire engine.

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