The Guardian is reporting that a Japanese seismologist Ishibashi Katsuhiko, warned long ago about the risks it faced in building nuclear plants in areas of intense seismic activity. Katsuhiko stated in 2007, specifically, that such an accident was highly likely to occur. Nuclear power plants in Japan have a "fundamental vulnerability" to major earthquakes. The government, the power industry and the academic community had seriously underestimated the potential risks posed by major quakes.