Japan to reveal truth behind Fukushima nuclear accident 1

According to the Japanese government on August 25, the government will make public the content of interviews with people who played important roles in handling the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima 1 Power Plant in February 2011, including the late Plant Director Masao Yoshida, starting from September this year.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) employees at the reactor 1-2 operation room at the Fukushima 1 power plant on March 10, nearly 3 years after the nuclear accident. (Photo: AFP/VNA)

“Former plant director Yoshida did not want his testimony made public due to concerns it could be misinterpreted, but the situation has changed now,” said Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.

The contents of interviews by a government committee set up to examine the accident at the plant northeast of Tokyo “will be made public at the earliest possible date in September this year.”

Fukushima 1 Plant Director Masao Yoshida died of esophageal cancer in July 2013, at the age of 58. The committee interviewed Mr. Yoshida for a total of more than 20 hours from July to November 2011.

The government refused to release Mr. Yoshida's testimony on the grounds that he did not want it made public to a third party.

However, interest in what Mr Yoshida revealed in the days after the March 11, 2011, nuclear accident – ​​when a double disaster shut down the six-reactor plant, leading to a series of explosions and the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl – has returned after reports that plant staff had fled.

Last May, the Asahi newspaper reported that 90% of workers had left the plant despite Mr. Yoshida's orders to stay.

The Sankei newspaper also published the contents of Mr. Yoshida's testimony last July while victims of the nuclear power accident filed a lawsuit demanding that these documents be made public./.

According to VNA