Letter to Tokyo Electric President Katsumata requesting English translations of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa earthquake damage data

[PDF: 28KB]

7 September 2007
Mr. Tsunehisa Katsumata
President
Tokyo Electric Power Company

Request for English Translations

Dear Mr. Katsumata,

We are writing to request full English translations of TEPCO’s reports on the impact of the 16 July 2007 ChuetsuOki Earthquake on the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant. The limited English information which your company has published on its web site is welcome, but much more is necessary to enable non-English speakers to understand the behavior of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant during the Chuetsu-Oki Earthquake.

Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center contacted your company to find out if it intended to translate its 10 August 2007 report1 into English. The report contained key information that would be useful to anyone with a technical interest in the impact of the earthquake. Your company refused to translate the report, so we made a provisional translation of the neutron flux and reactor pressure charts. We have showed them to overseas specialists and uploaded them onto the following web site:
http://cnic.jp/english/topics/safety/earthquake/kktechreport10aug07.html

In addition to a full English translation of the 10 August report, we also call on TEPCO to publish on its web site full translations of the other technical reports relating to the Chuetsu-Oki Earthquake which TEPCO has issued in Japanese, including the reports released on 22 and 23 August 2007.

If TEPCO can provide such information in English to the IAEA, there is no reason why it cannot provide it to a wider audience. Only when sufficient basic data is

available in English will the international community be able to independently analyze the findings and the lessons learned.

Yours sincerely,

Philip White, International Liaison Officer, Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center, Tokyo
Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center
Akebonobashi Co-op 2F-B, 8-5 Sumiyoshi-cho,
Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-0065, Japan
TEL.03-3357-3800 FAX.03-3357-3801
email: cnic@nifty.com

Aileen Mioko Smith, Director, Green Action, Kyoto
Green Action
Suite 103, 22-75 Tanaka Sekiden-cho
Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8203 Japan
Tel: +81-75-701-7223 Fax: +81-75-702-1952
email: amsmith@gol.com

Jan Beranek, Nuclear Energy Project Leader, Climate & Energy Unit, Greenpeace International
Greenpeace International
Ottho Heldringstraat 5, 1066 AZ Amsterdam
Tel NL office: +31-20-718-2134
email: jan.beranek@int.greenpeace.org


1. The 10 August 2007 report referred to is on the following URL:
http://www.tepco.co.jp/cc/press/07081002-j.html