MUKHTAR.LENGGONG: Nuke plant's fake safety records scandal

Hadis Nabi

Rasulullah SAW berpesan, “Bersegeralah kamu melakukan amalan soleh kerana akan datang kepada umatku di suatu masa, satu fitnah yang begitu besar yang datangnya seperti satu kepingan hitam di malam gelap gelita tak nampak”. Sahabat bertanya, “Apakah fitnah besar itu ya Rasullullah?”. “Fitnah itu adalah kamu akan lihat umatku di hari itu, di waktu itu, pada masa itu, pagi hari Islam, petang kafir. Petang Islam, pagi kafir semula”. Sahabat bertanya lagi, “Mengapa begitu ya Rasullullah?”. Rasullullah SAW menjawab, “sebab dia menjual agamanya dengan nilai dunia”.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Nuke plant's fake safety records scandal

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The company at the centre of a nuclear reactor crisis following the biggest earthquake in Japan's recorded history has had a rocky past in an industry plagued by scandal.

The Japanese government said on Saturday that there had been radiation leakage at Tokyo Electric Power's (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi plant following an explosion there.

The blast came as TEPCO was working desperately to reduce pressures in the core of a reactor at the 40-year-old plant, which lies 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.

In 2002, the president of the country's largest power utility was forced to resign along with four other senior executives, taking responsibility for suspected falsification of nuclear plant safety records.

The company was suspected of 29 cases involving falsified repair records at nuclear reactors. It had to stop operations at five reactors, including the two damaged in the latest tremor, for safety inspections.

A few years later it ran into trouble again over accusations of falsifying data.

In late 2006, the government ordered TEPCO to check past data after it reported that it had found falsification of coolant water temperatures at its Fukushima Daiichi plant in 1985 and 1988, and that the tweaked data was used in mandatory inspections at the plant, which were completed in October 2005.

And in 2007, TEPCO reported that it had found more past data falsifications, though this time it did not have to close any of its plants.