Nuclear experts issue interim Fukushima report

A panel of nuclear energy experts has released an interim report on the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. They noted that efforts to prevent a severe accident were inadequate.

The Atomic Energy Society of Japan set up the accident investigation committee last August, with the aim of examining the disaster from nuclear experts' point of view.

The panel of 40 experts from universities and research institutes issued the interim report on Wednesday.

The report said if the plant had been fully prepared in terms of safety it would have avoided releasing massive amounts of radioactive material into the environment.

But as for the cause of the accident, the report only summarized what is already known. It did not offer any new findings or analyses distinct from similar reports by the government's and the Diet's special panels.
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