英字新聞

August 01, 2014
EDITORIAL: Public demands the truth about Fukushima accident
（社説）原発事故原因　究明求める声を聴け

What is the whole truth about the nuclear disaster that hit this nation three years ago? We have yet to hear a satisfactory answer to this question.
　３年前の原発事故は何だったのか。私たちは納得いく答えをまだ得ていないではないか。

Public discontent about this fact was clearly reflected in a recent decision by an independent judicial panel of citizens concerning the criminal liability of three former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Co. for the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
　そんな国民の不満が反映された議決とみるべきだろう。

The Tokyo No. 5 Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution said July 31 that the three should be indicted over the 2011 disaster, rejecting a decision by prosecutors against prosecuting them.
　福島第一原発の事故をめぐり検察審査会が、東京電力の元幹部３人について、「起訴相当」とする議決書を公表した。

The panel’s action forces the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office to reconsider its decision to drop the case against the three former executives of the electric utility, which operates the stricken nuclear power plant.
　いったん不起訴処分とした東京地検は、起訴するかどうか改めて判断することになった。

Regardless of whether the three are actually indicted, there is no doubt that the panel’s call is a sign of public exasperation about the lack of serious efforts to get to the bottom of the nuclear disaster on the part of the government, the Diet and the utility.
　刑事責任の追及がどうなるかはさておき、この議決には、事故について徹底究明しようとしない政府と国会、東電に対する社会のいらだちが映し出されているのは確かだろう。

Both the government and the Diet have the power and ability to gather huge amounts of information about the accident and glean lessons from what happened. The authority is vested in the two institutions by the people.
　政府と国会には、事故に関する膨大な情報を集めて、教訓を引き出す権限と能力がある。国民が与えているのである。

But both the government and the Diet have failed to make a serious response to the people’s calls for a clarification of the causes of the accident.
　にもかかわらず、政府も国会も、原因究明を求める国民の思いにまったく応えていない。

This discontent has also been indicated by a recent opinion poll.
　その不満は、世論調査からも読み取れる。

In a national poll conducted by The Asahi Shimbun in July, 59 percent of the respondents voiced opposition to the plan to restart reactors at Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai nuclear power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture, against 23 percent who supported it.
朝日新聞社による７月の全国世論調査では、九州電力川内（せんだい）原発（鹿児島県）の再稼働について「賛成」が２３％、「反対」が５９％だった。

When asked whether they thought that the lessons from the Fukushima accident had been incorporated into Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s energy policies, only 19 percent of the respondents said “yes,” while 61 percent answered negatively.
　安倍首相の政策に事故の教訓が生かされていると思うかとの問いには、そう思う人が１９％、否定が６１％だった。

The committees set up separately by the government and the Diet to investigate the accident both ended their inquiries after about one year of work. Both panels called for continued efforts to reveal the whole truth about the triple meltdown at the Fukushima plant. But virtually no specific step has been taken to do so.
　政府と国会が事故直後、別々につくった事故調査委員会は、いずれも１年前後で活動を終えた。どちらも引き続き究明を求めたが、今に至るまで具体的な動きはないに等しい。

Given the scale and severity of the accident, it is obvious that the hasty investigations conducted by the two panels are far from sufficient. The records of testimonies and the massive materials produced by their inquiries have not been made available for wide use.
　これだけの事故を起こしながら、駆け足の調査で済ませていいわけがない。両事故調が集めた証言録や資料も死蔵されたままである。

A full-scale probe into the accident should be resumed to make clear the lessons that should be learned before the relevant memories of people involved begin to fade.
　関係者の記憶が薄れぬ前に、早く本格的な調査を再開して教訓をきちんと示すべきだ。

The three former executives at TEPCO are facing possible charges of professional negligence resulting in death and injury. Legal action has been taken against them by survivors of the accident in Fukushima Prefecture and others. The plaintiffs are seeking to hold the three liable for damage caused by the disaster, such as the deaths of hospitalized patients and the exposure of local residents to radiation during evacuations.
　東電元幹部が問われている容疑は、業務上過失致死傷罪である。事故の避難途中に入院患者が死亡し、住民が被曝（ひばく）したなどとして、福島県内の被災者らが告訴・告発したものだ。

Important for proving their criminal liability are issues like whether the possibility of a powerful earthquake and huge tsunami triggering such a severe accident could be foreseen.
　刑事責任を問ううえでは、地震や津波の予見可能性などの立証が重みをもつ。

But efforts to draw lessons from the accident should not be focused only on such judicial viewpoints. The probe should be done from a broader perspective.
だが、教訓を引き出すうえでは、そうした司法の視点だけでなく、幅広い視野からの検証も重要である。

Whether local residents can be safely evacuated in nuclear emergencies is one of the key questions for the decision on whether to restart an idled nuclear power plant. But the criteria for deciding on whether to bring a reactor back online do not include the existence of an effective and workable evacuation plan.
　住民が安全に避難できるかどうかは、原発を再び動かすかどうかをめぐる最大の焦点のひとつだ。なのに、再稼働の前提となる基準には今も、避難態勢の整備は含まれていない。

What happened to local residents during the nuclear crisis? How did the electric utility respond to the crisis?
　あのとき、住民に何が起きたのか、電力会社の対応はどうだったのか。

In order to answer these and other key questions, it is vital to examine afresh the accident in an exhaustive manner from all possible angles.
あらゆる角度から、事故の徹底検証を進めることが不可欠である。

--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 1