You're reading: Ex-Chornobyl deputy head: Human factor caused Fukushima catastrophe

The operator company's indecision and slowness caused the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant to become a catastrophe, ex-deputy head of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant Oleksandr Kovalenko told Interfax.

"In my opinion, the operator company’s confusion and lack of action caused a nuclear accident of medium severity to deteriorate into a real catastrophe," said Kovalenko, who was in charge of the information and international relations department of the government commission for dealing with the aftermath of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster.

"It was neither an earthquake nor a tsunami wave that caused the reactor disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. It was the human factor, as at Chornobyl," he said.

"The main difference between Fukushima and Chornobyl is in that the Japanese government and nuclear energy experts disregarded the information and organizational-technical lessons of Chornobyl. They were unjustifiably slow to react and failed to make real-time decisions," Kovalenko said.

A powerful earthquake in Armenia two years after Chornobyl could have caused a scenario similar to the Japanese one, he said.

"I will open one secret. A situation similar to the one in Japan emerged in the Soviet Union when an earthquake measuring 8 points struck Armenia at 11:41 a.m. on December 7 1988, he said.

Almost all personnel left the station when the earthquake began. In the absence of operating and repair staff the danger of reactor overheating arose.

"The Soviet government and Nuclear Energy Ministry immediately switched personnel from other nuclear power plants to Armenia, mostly from the Kola nuclear power plant," he said.

Water supplies, needed for cooling the active zone, were restored in a few hours, using various ways, including fire engines, Kovalenko said.

"The situation was brought back to normal quickly, which helped prevent a disaster similar to the one that has befallen the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Official reports indicate that after the nuclear disaster in Japan, the personnel left the station at an official order, not of their own accord, he said.

This decision was made in Japan because pressure was growing inside the power plant and radiation levels rose, Kovalenko said, "which suggests that the personnel were watching the imminent danger from a safe distance. As a result, the water level dropped sharply, pressure started growing inside the reactors, leading to explosions and outbursts, and the radiation levels rose catastrophically," the expert said.

The work to restore electricity supplies, using mobile power plants, began at the first and second generating units as late as March 14, when the disaster deteriorated into a catastrophe, he said.