So the situation is very clear to an old geezer like myself.
Three very smart men are told that a tsunami might happen that could cause serious trouble for a nuclear power station and those three very smart men stated that they weren't convinced.
The tsunami happened and this nation is now facing an absolutely horrible situation because of that tsunami those three smart men made the decision could/would not happen.
Somebody decided that some highly respected members of this nation should sit in judgment on those three smart men and decide if those three smart men did anything wrong.
The decision: They Did Not Do Anything Wrong.
Now that summary is a tad on the rough side and not at all in all that fancy legal language I guess those highly respected judges used, and in the wrong language, but we can get back to that later.
Here is one source, from The Japan Times, to start:
Former Tepco executives found not guilty of criminal negligence in Fukushima disaster
Let us focus on the very easy to understand, "the data available to them beforehand was not reliable." - - - (You must "Click to expand" to see those words.)
I dig into my archives and find this from March 29th in 2011:
That comes from this special report put out by Reuters:
Special Report: Japan engineers knew tsunami could overrun plant
Now we look at a bit of history:
1933 Sanriku, Japan 1933 Sanriku earthquake
Although little damage was produced from the shock, the tsunami, which was recorded to reach the height of 28.7 metres (94 ft) at Ōfunato, Iwate, caused extensive damage, and destroyed many homes and caused numerous casualties.
1944 Tōnankai, Japan 1944 Tōnankai earthquake
The maximum recorded wave height was 10 meters on the Kumano coast.
1983 Sea of Japan 1983 Sea of Japan earthquake
Footage of the tsunami hitting the fishing harbor of Wajima on Noto Peninsula was broadcast on TV. Waves exceeded 10 meters in some areas.
1993 Okushiri, Hokkaido , Japan 1993 Hokkaido earthquake
However, at Okushiri, a small island near the epicenter, some waves reaching 30 meters struck within two to five minutes of the quake.
And we are informed by some individuals who are charged with dispensing justice and also charged with making sure that the people of Earth understand that this is a nation of laws and of smart humans and a nation where all are held accountable when horrible errors are committed; and those individuals just told the rest of the citizens of this planet that three very smart people in a position to be sure a nuclear power plant was safe from a tsunami were not guilty of a mistake when they decided protection from a maximum height tsunami of six meters was plenty safe enough because they studied all available information before they made that decision and they found nothing to contradict the view that a tsunami over six meters could not happen.
Three very smart men are told that a tsunami might happen that could cause serious trouble for a nuclear power station and those three very smart men stated that they weren't convinced.
The tsunami happened and this nation is now facing an absolutely horrible situation because of that tsunami those three smart men made the decision could/would not happen.
Somebody decided that some highly respected members of this nation should sit in judgment on those three smart men and decide if those three smart men did anything wrong.
The decision: They Did Not Do Anything Wrong.
Now that summary is a tad on the rough side and not at all in all that fancy legal language I guess those highly respected judges used, and in the wrong language, but we can get back to that later.
Here is one source, from The Japan Times, to start:
Former Tepco executives found not guilty of criminal negligence in Fukushima disaster
The Tokyo District Court on Thursday found three former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. not guilty of failing to implement safety measures at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant despite information indicating the risk of a major tsunami.
Former Tepco Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, 79, and former Vice Presidents Sakae Muto, 69, and Ichiro Takekuro, 73, were the only people facing criminal prosecution in the wake of the March 2011 disaster triggered when a massive tsunami caused by an earthquake overwhelmed the reactors at the plant.
All three pleaded not guilty to the charges of professional negligence resulting in death and injury, arguing that the data available to them beforehand was not reliable.
Let us focus on the very easy to understand, "the data available to them beforehand was not reliable." - - - (You must "Click to expand" to see those words.)
I dig into my archives and find this from March 29th in 2011:
The 40-year-old nuclear complex was built near a quake zone in the Pacific that had produced earthquakes of magnitude 8 or higher four times in the past 400 years — in 1896, 1793, 1677 and then in 1611, Tokyo Electric researchers had come to understand.
Based on that history, Sakai, a senior safety manager at Tokyo Electric, and his research team applied new science to a simple question: What was the chance that an earthquake-generated wave would hit Fukushima? More pressing, what were the odds that it would be larger than the roughly 6-meter (20 feet) wall of water the plant had been designed to handle?
That comes from this special report put out by Reuters:
Special Report: Japan engineers knew tsunami could overrun plant
Now we look at a bit of history:
1933 Sanriku, Japan 1933 Sanriku earthquake
Although little damage was produced from the shock, the tsunami, which was recorded to reach the height of 28.7 metres (94 ft) at Ōfunato, Iwate, caused extensive damage, and destroyed many homes and caused numerous casualties.
1944 Tōnankai, Japan 1944 Tōnankai earthquake
The maximum recorded wave height was 10 meters on the Kumano coast.
1983 Sea of Japan 1983 Sea of Japan earthquake
Footage of the tsunami hitting the fishing harbor of Wajima on Noto Peninsula was broadcast on TV. Waves exceeded 10 meters in some areas.
1993 Okushiri, Hokkaido , Japan 1993 Hokkaido earthquake
However, at Okushiri, a small island near the epicenter, some waves reaching 30 meters struck within two to five minutes of the quake.
And we are informed by some individuals who are charged with dispensing justice and also charged with making sure that the people of Earth understand that this is a nation of laws and of smart humans and a nation where all are held accountable when horrible errors are committed; and those individuals just told the rest of the citizens of this planet that three very smart people in a position to be sure a nuclear power plant was safe from a tsunami were not guilty of a mistake when they decided protection from a maximum height tsunami of six meters was plenty safe enough because they studied all available information before they made that decision and they found nothing to contradict the view that a tsunami over six meters could not happen.
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