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Accurate data shattered the overly optimistic assessment of Tokyo Electric Power Co. concerning the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and raised doubts about the company's game plan for ending the crisis. Measurements from a recently installed water gauge provided conclusive evidence that the condition of the No. 1 reactor at the plant was much more serious than TEPCO officials have acknowledged until now. TEPCO officials admitted on May 12 that a "meltdown" had occurred in the No. 1 reactor. Fuel rods had melted, and the molten fuel accumulated and caused small cracks at the bottom of the reactor...

Megabanks Fall On Possible Tepco Debt Waiver TOKYO (NQN)--Shares in Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. (8306), Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. (8316) and Mizuho Financial Group Inc. (8411) fell Friday afternoon after Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano suggested the megabanks would have to write off some of their Tepco debts. Edano said at a news conference that the Japanese people will never accept the use of taxpayers' money to help Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) to help pay compensation for damage caused by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant unless banks waive their Tepco debts from before the...

ince the pressure inside the reactor building is lower than the outside by design, when TEPCO opened the double door the cooler outside air got sucked in, and the radioactive air that was inside the building was pushed up and out of the building through the roof that had collapsed by the explosion on March 12. And they chose to open the door at night, when the outside air was even colder. So the whole point of this exercise was to release as much radioactive air as possible out of the reactor building, it seems. They could have chosen to...

That's diametrically opposite of what the government officials were apparently saying on May 1, when the PM's assistant was on record saying "there will be a large amount of radioactive materials released on May 8". No estimate or simulation of how low (or high) the level may be of the radioactive materials coming out of the Reactor 1 reactor building. No official (government) word. For the rest of us, we are supposed to take TEPCO's word and feel secure and comforted that radiation will be low. This is the company that somehow forgot (didn't bother, I might say) to inform...

A vice president of Tokyo Electric Power Company says he believes the nuclear crisis at Fukushima nuclear power plant is a man-made disaster. TEPCO vice president Norio Tsuzumi visited Iitate village in Fukushima Prefecture on Saturday and apologized to about 1,000 villagers who gathered to hear him speak. When he was asked if he thinks of the nuclear crisis a man-made disaster or a natural disaster, he said personally he thinks it is a man-made disaster. All of the 6,000 residents of Iitate were instructed to evacuate by late May based on accumulated radiation exposure levels caused by emissions from...

Tokyo Electric to Build Seawalls to Protect Fukushima N-Plant Fukushima, April 30 (Jiji Press)--Tokyo Electric Power Co. <9501> will build temporary seawalls by mid-June to protect its stricken nuclear power plant from tsunami that could occur if a strong earthquake happens again, officials said Saturday. Based mainly on forecasts by the Meteorological Agency, Tokyo Electric will prepare itself for an aftershock with the maximum magnitude of around 8 on the Richter scale and subsequent tsunami less than 10 meters high, the officials said. The barriers will be installed on grounds to the southwest of the No. 1 to No. 4...

The Media Corruption that Protects TEPCO Uesugi Takashi explained the core of the problem behind misinformation and rumors. "Freelance journalists and foreign media are pursuing the facts, even going into the radiation exclusion zone. However, surprisingly, the Japan government continues to prevent freelance journalists and overseas media from gaining access to official press conferences at the prime minister's house and government." Uesugi stated that since March 11th, the government has excluded all internet media and all foreign media from official press conferences on the "Emergency Situation". While foreign media have scrambled to gather informationabout the Fukushima Reactor, they have been...

TOKYO — Given the fierce insularity of Japan’s nuclear industry, it was perhaps fitting that an outsider exposed the most serious safety cover-up in the history of Japanese nuclear power. It took place at Fukushima Daiichi, the plant that Japan has been struggling to get under control since last month’s earthquake and tsunami.

TEPCO seeks 20% cut in employees' annual salaries TOKYO, April 21, Kyodo Tokyo Electric Power Co. is considering cutting annual salaries of its employees by around 20 percent as part of its restructuring effort to make compensation payments over the emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex, company sources said Thursday.

April 18, 2011 Mysterious Trades in a Big Block of Tokyo Electric Shares Draw Regulators’ Interest By KEITH BRADSHER TOKYO — Japanese regulators and executives of the Tokyo Electric Power Company are asking questions about a seemingly coordinated series of stock purchases two weeks ago that led to an undisclosed buyer or buyers acquiring a large block of the utility, which owns Japan’s dangerously damaged nuclear power plant. Regulators want to know whether the trades, valued at up to $600 million and placed from Hong Kong during the week of April 3, were structured to circumvent Japanese securities laws, which...

TEPCO aims to achieve 'cold shutdown' for reactors in 6-9 months TOKYO, April 17, Kyodo Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Sunday that it aims to bring the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to a stable condition known as a ''cold shutdown'' in about six to nine months, while restoring stable cooling to the reactors and spent fuel pools in about three months. At a news conference in Tokyo, company Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata announced the utility's schedule ''for the moment'' for bringing the complex in Fukushima Prefecture under control, while offering an apology for the ongoing nuclear...

ANALYSIS: Defensive TEPCO fears ballooning compensation to evacuees 2011/04/15 Masataka Shimizu, the embattled president of Tokyo Electric Power Co., promised compensation to evacuees who fled the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, but he stopped short of providing specific amounts or a timetable. "We will respond in a sincere manner based on the compensation system for damage from nuclear power plants after consulting with the central government," Shimizu said at a news conference Wednesday. "Because the evacuation has become a prolonged one, we want to make provisional payments as soon as possible. We still have to decide on a specific...

Temperatures rise at No.4 spent fuel storage pool The Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, says the water temperature in the spent fuel storage pool at the No. 4 reactor in the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has risen to about 90 degrees Celsius. It fears the spent fuel rods may be damaged. TEPCO took the temperature on Tuesday using an extending arm on a special vehicle. It found the temperature was much higher than the normal level of under 40 degrees. To cool the fuel, TEPCO sprayed 195 tons of water for 6 hours on Wednesday morning. The company thinks...

Saturday, April 9, 2011 TEPCO Begins Building Steel Wall, Fence To Prevent Sea Contamination TOKYO (Kyodo)--The operator of a crippled Fukushima nuclear power station started Saturday to install a steel wall and fence to prevent more water containing radioactive substances from seeping into the Pacific Ocean.

Fukushima Nuclear Accident Update Log [Updates of 8 April 2011] IAEA Briefing on Fukushima Nuclear Accident (8 April 2011, 15:00 UTC) Presentation: Summary of Reactor Status On Friday, 8 April 2011, the IAEA provided the following information on the current status of nuclear safety in Japan: 1. Earthquake of 7 April The IAEA confirms that an earthquake occurred in Japan at 14:32 UTC, 7 April. The IAEA International Seismic Safety Centre has rated it as a 7.1 magnitude, revised from an initial 7.4 magnitude. The epicenter of the earthquake was 20 km from the Onagawa nuclear power plant and approximately...

FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR ACCIDENT THE KEESE SCHOOL OF CONTINUING EDUCATION MURRAY E. MILES MARCH 24, 2011 I PLANT PRIMER The three other talks I have given to Keese School each took about a year to prepare. You all get to judge the effect of my having only 48 hours to prepare for this talk. You have to be very careful in an emergency phase about what to believe. I have used many written sources and some by phone to get to the stage today where I can finally put together a reasonably credible analysis. This is day 13. Some of what...

A radiation monitor at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says workers there are exposed to immeasurable levels of radiation. The monitor told NHK that no one can enter the plant's No. 1 through 3 reactor buildings because radiation levels are so high that monitoring devices have been rendered useless. He said even levels outside the buildings exceed 100 millisieverts in some places.

Due to the Tohoku-Taiheiyou-Oki Earthquake which occurred on March 11th 2011, two TEPCO employees, who had been working at the turbine building of Unit 4 for site investigation, went missing. We had put all our strengths to search them, and approximately at 3:25 pm and at 3:53 pm, today, March 30th, 2011, those employees were found at the basement of the turbine building and we confirmed their death yesterday. We would like to offer our deep regret that our workers died while working at the plant and heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. [Deceased Employees of TEPCO] Kazuhiko Kokubo (Age:...

Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says there has been no change in the amount of radioactive water seeping from the Fukushima nuclear plant after a polymer absorbent was injected into a cracked pit. Tokyo Electric Power Company found on Saturday that contaminated water was leaking into the ocean from the 20-centimeter crack in the concrete pit. On Sunday, the utility firm used a polymer absorbent to try to stop the leak of radioactive water. The government's nuclear agency said the injection of the chemical began shortly after 1:40 PM, but it cannot confirm if there has been a decline...

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese officials grappling on Sunday to end the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl were focusing on a crack in a concrete pit that was leaking radiation into the ocean from a crippled reactor. Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it had found a crack in the pit at its No.2 reactor in Fukushima, generating readings 1,000 millisieverts of radiation per hour in the air inside the pit. "With radiation levels rising in the seawater near the plant, we have been trying to confirm the reason why, and in that context, this could be one source," said...