Human errors responsible for deepening Fukushima crisis: IAEA chief

VIENNA (Kyodo) -- The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday that human errors were among the factors that exacerbated the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

"There were a series of human errors" that led to the deepening of the disaster triggered by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said in an interview with Kyodo News.

One of the most serious errors was the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency's failure to effectively supervise Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the Fukushima plant.

The Japanese nuclear safety agency "should have been able to closely monitor" the utility's emergency preparedness as a supervisory organization, while there were problems with the Japanese government's decision making and the way it released information during the early stage of the crisis, Amano said. Source