The Japanese office for nuclear safety NISA admitted at the end of August, that the largest electricity company TEPCO falsified none less than 29 inspection reports aout problems in 3 nuclear power reactors, Fukushima 1 and 2 and the Kashiwazaki-Kariva power station (1).

On the basis of warnings from an anonymous witness - a former employee of General Electric Inc., the Japanese Ministry of Trade, Industry and Economics (METI) was already informed about the incident at least from July 2000. The Japanese government refused to publish information for two years and claimed all the time that Japanese reactors are safe.

In the same time as in Japan (July 2000) also the Czech Greenpeace office was informed by an eyewitness (also a former employee), that in 1994 in Temelin a serious mistake was made that may endanger the safety of that nuclear power station. During the assembly of the primary cooling circuit of the first block, one of the main pipes was welded wrongly to the reactor. This mistake was not reported according to the technical prescriptions and the repair was carried out in secret. Furthermore the corresponding documentation must have been manipulated. Greenpeace has a written declaration from the eyewitness available (2).

In October 2000, Greenpeace turned to the Czech police and the Czech State Office for Nuclear Safety (SUJB) with the demand for an inmediate investigation into the matter and filed a criminal complaint against unknown. SUJB sent out inspection teams to Temelin and the responsble firm, Modranske potrubni, but the resulting protocoll of this inspection has never been published.

"The State Office for Nuclear Safety (SUJB) still keeps the results of the inspection of this faulty repair in Temelin secret, and diverts attention with other reports that do not address the problem. We are convinced that when this case is not properly investigated, the Czech Republic will run similar risks as Japan," announced Jiri Tutter, Greenpeace director in the Czech Republic, and added that sooner or later the truth will come to light.

The scandal in Japan will have a devastating influence on the whole nuclear industry. No less than 4 reactors had to be stopped and submitted to an in-depth inspection. TEPCO is the Tokyo Electric Power Company - the Japanese equivalent to the Czech power giant CEZ. TEPCO's president of the board Hiroshi Araki and CEO Nobuya Minami already resigned from their positions. Also the Japanese programme for the use of mixed oxide fuel (MOX), containing Plutonium, was postoned for an indefinete periode. The first MOX fuel was planned to be loaded in two reactors at he end of September. The problems occured exactly at those two reactors.

"The scandal in Japan shows again, that the the nuclear industry behaves in a non-transparent way and that we cannot believe it. We therefore demand from the Czech government, that it demands from SUJB insight in the complete protocolls of the work of its inspection team from around March 2001. Furthermore we demand that this report is published, including all its appendices," declared Tutter.

Further information:

Ing. Jiri Tutter, Greenpeace Executive Director in the Czech Republic (Czech, English), tel: +420.224 319 667

Ir. Jan Haverkamp, Greenpeace Campaign Director in the Czech Republic (English, German, Dutch, Czech), mobile: +420.603 569 243, e-mail jan.haverkamp@cz.greenpeace.org

Jimi Dabrundashvili, Coordinator Nuclear Campaign, tel: +420.224 319 667, e-mail: jimi@cz.greenpeace.org

Václav Vasku, press spokes person, mobile: +420.603 414 739, e-mail: vvasku@cz.greenpeace.org

Internet: http://www.greenpeace.cz/temelin; English language background documents can be sent upon request.

Notes for the editor:

(1) An overview of the Japanese nuclear industry scandal including a choice of international press publications can be found at: http://www.greenpeace.org/news/details?news%5fid=42533 http://www.tepco.co.jp/corp-com/press/02082901-e.html

(2) Greenpeace informed SUJB several times about the irregular repair, as well as the Czech police and the former Czech government. The whole problem is described in the Greenpeace report "Unsettling facts on Temelin", which can be sent upon request. Czech language information can be found on:
http://www.greenpeace.cz/temelin/aktax.htm
http://www.greenpeace.cz/release/01/011213.htm
http://www.greenpeace.cz/release/02/020606.htm