Despite protestations from the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. that the tsunami that knocked out the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant was unforeseeable, noted seismologists and nuclear experts say the crisis is largely man-made.
Kojiro Irikura, an honorary professor of seismology at Kyoto University who was on the committee drawing up quake resistance guidelines for nuclear plants in September 2006, said that the Fukushima plant lacked effective "multiple protections" at some key facilities.
Another committee member and nuclear plant expert, Kunihiko Takeda of Chubu University, criticized the government for not demanding that power companies be prepared for natural disasters, in particular tsunami like the massive waves that knocked out the critical cooling systems at three of the six nuclear reactors at the No. 1 plant.