Tepco neglected safety upgrades at Fukushima Daiichi to avoid controversy

The New York Times has reported that the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has admitted it neglected to make needed safety upgrades at its now-destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, in order to avoid anti-nuclear protests, lawsuits, and calls for shutting down the reactors.

The article reports:

In the report, Tepco said that before the accident it had been afraid to consider the risk of such a large tsunami, fearing admissions of risk could result in public pressure to shut plants down.

“There were concerns that if new countermeasures against severe accidents were installed, concern would spread in host communities that the current plants had safety problems,” the report said.

The article also reports that Tepco's own engineers had warned about tsunami risks even worse than those that hit Fukushima Daiichi on March 11, 2011.

CNN also reported on this story.