Scientist Who Warned of Japan Quake Was Dismissed

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) Dismissed as a “nobody” by Japan’s nuclear industry, seismologist Katsuhiko Ishibashi spent two decades watching his predictions of disaster come true: First in the 1995 Kobe earthquake and then at Fukushima. He says the government still doesn’t get it.

The 67-year-old scientist recalled in an interview how his boss marched him to the Construction Ministry to apologize for writing a 1994 book suggesting Japan’s building codes put its cities at risk. Five months later, thousands were killed when a quake devastated Kobe city. The book, “A Seismologist Warns,” became a bestseller.

That didn’t stop Haruki Madarame, now head of Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission, from dismissing Ishibashi as an amateur when he warned of a “nuclear earthquake disaster,” a phrase the Kobe University professor coined in 1997. Ishibashi says Japan still underestimates the risk of operating reactors in a country that has about 10 percent of the world’s quakes.

“What was missing -- and is still missing -- is a recognition of the danger,” Ishibashi said, seated in a dining room stacked with books in his house in a Kobe suburb. “I understand we’re not going to shut all of the nuclear plants, but we should rank them by risk and phase out the worst.” ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-21/nuclear-regulator-dismissed-seismologist-on-japan-quake-threat.html#

[PoliticAverse]

1. "Japan without nuclear energy may add as much as $22 billion a year to the power bill for insustry"

I wonder what the final cost of the Fukushima cleanup will be.

[gateley]

2. Different scientists/geologists have presented possible indicators

of an upcoming quake. None of them say their approach is 100% accurate, but it sure wouldn't hurt to at least listen and see if there's some merit. They way it is now, they're summarily dismissed with "there's no way to predict earthquakes. Period."

The hubris dumbfounds me. We think we know all the answers to everything and don't need to learn anything more.

How very Republican.

[Wilms]

3. Same as the guy who warned about the generators being vulnerable.

It's how the world works...ur...falls apart.

[hootinholler]

4. I hate to give Bloomberg hits n/t