TOKYO — The Japanese utility still battling leaks of radiated water at the nuclear plant sent into meltdown by the 2011 tsunami thinks it has found the perfect person to oversee its safety campaign — a foreign woman.
Lady Barbara Judge — a British-American, who has worked as a lawyer, banker and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner — says that Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility behind the 2011 Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, has changed enough under a new president to begin restarting its reactors.
Still, she did not mince words about the past practices of the utility linked to the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
"There was a culture of efficiency, not a culture of safety," Judge told The Associated Press on Friday, during a trip to Tokyo for meetings at TEPCO. "There was no safety culture. There was an assumption of safety."
Judge, honorary chairman at the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority, says she is exactly the kind of person Japan's insular and male-dominated atomic industry needs to keep it in rein.
She also says nuclear power remains the best option for a resource-poor nation like Japan and vows that under her guidance the utility will adhere to world-class safety standards.
TEPCO, which hired her for its nuclear reform committee in September, is eager to restart its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, northeast of Tokyo.
New government safety rules are set to kick in next week, signaling a possible go-ahead for some of the 50 idled reactors to get back online.