Fukushima plant 'planned tsunami risk review'

The owner of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant was planning a reassessment of tsunami risks just before last year’s disaster, a briefing paper indicates.

Tokyo Electric Power presented the paper to Japan’s nuclear regulators on March 7, 2011, four days before the tsunami. It promised a new risk assessment by last October.

The paper summarised recent studies that suggested a tsunami as high as 33ft might hit the plant.

That was higher than the 20ft surge it had been designed to withstand.

The Associated Press obtained the three-page document through a public records request to Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.