"Beyond the scope of the assumption"

It's the new Japanese way of saying "Nobody could have predicted" which, we all know means somebody sure as shit predicted it and was ignored.

Yukinobu Okamura said Tokyo Electric Power Co, the operator of Fukushima 1 plant damaged by the March 11 earthquake and resulting tsunami, had insisted on the safety of its quake-resistance design and was reluctant to raise the assumption of possible quake damage, Kyodo news agency reported.

'It is odd to have an attitude of not taking into consideration indeterminate aspects,' Okamura, who heads the Active Fault and Earthquake Research Center, was quoted as saying.

Okamura issued his warning in 2009, based on his study since 2004 of the traces of a major tsunami believed to have swept away about 1,000 people in the year 869 after an 8.3-magnitude earthquake.

His research showed that tsunami had struck a wide range of the coastal regions of north-eastern Japan, the same region hit by this month's disasters, Kyodo said.

The country is facing a grave nuclear crisis since the earthquake and tsunami struck the plant. Its cooling functions failed and radioactive materials were released. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from surrounding areas.

The operator has repeatedly said that the March 11 tsunami was 'beyond the scope of the assumption.'