OSAKA — Severe damage to the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant had the central government and local authorities in neighboring towns racing Saturday to evacuate residents and implement previously agreed upon emergency response measures.
But the unprecedented scale of Friday's earthquake and tsunami left questions about not only the adequacy of the measures but the basic policy of pursuing nuclear power in a country as earthquake-prone as Japan.
The Japan Nuclear Safety Organization notes that following the September 1999 accident at a uranium processing facility in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, in which two workers died after mishandling uranium fuel that went critical, the government established a new law for responding to nuclear disasters.