The latest annual report from Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission is a troubling reminder that accident prevention remains a key priority for the nation's nuclear power industry. The head of the commission acknowledges in the foreword that last August's tragedy in Mihama, Fukui Prefecture -- Japan's deadliest nuclear accident ever -- could have been prevented if sufficient precautions had been taken.
The accident, which killed five workers and injured six others, involved the rupture of a water pipe in one of the reactors of Kansai Electric Power Co. The affected workers were heavily exposed to superheated steam bursting from the broken section of pipe. In September 1999, two workers died from radiation exposure at a uranium-purification facility in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture.
The basic assumption is that people are liable to make mistakes. To make up for human shortcomings, a wide array of safety technologies have been developed. But believing that technologies can eliminate all accidents once and for all is wishful thinking. In the nuclear industry, at least in its present stages of development, there is no such thing as absolute safety.