National
Cherrie Lou Billones on Jan 26 2013
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) chairman
Tsunehisa Katsumata was subjected to a series of questioning by Japanese prosecutors yesterday, according to local media. This was a resulting action triggered by
a complaint filed last year by a number of citizens against 40 people who have relevant connection to the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which included former TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu, as well as Katsumata.
Worried about the 20 Tokyo Electric Power Co. (
TEPCO) executives resigning for their roles in Japan's March 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis? Concerned about what the utility companies' directors, and even president, will do after their mismanagement and incompetence led to the world's worst nuclear disaster in the last 25 year? Well, worry yourself no longer dear reader, for eight of the 20 former TEPCO executives
have landed comfortable, lucrative positions at other companies, most of them remaining utility company field.
On Monday afternoon, a
criminal complaint was filed by 1,300 people, mostly residents from Fukushima Prefecture, against Tsunehisa Katsumata, chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (
TEPCO), and 32 other executives from the utility company that operates the disaster-struck Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The plaintiffs state that the 33 executives should be held responsible for causing last year's nuclear disaster and for their exposure to radiation.
A parliamentary panel investigating the handling of the Fukushima nuclear disaster
reports that during the worst of the emergency, former Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his aides frequently made calls directly to the Fukushima nuclear facility to ask for basic information, which distracted workers and added to the already chaotic situation. Shuya Nomura, a member of the panel, reported that the Prime Minister’s office did not adhere to the established chain of communication by speaking to the regulating organization, the Industrial Safety Agency, as is stipulated by the national nuclear disaster management law.
On Friday, the former president of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (
TEPCO), the utility responsible for managing the disaster struck Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, will take his turn for the first time to be
grilled by an investigative panel on what led to last year's meltdown. With members appointed by the Japanese parliament, the panel is tasked with uncovering the truth about TEPCO's mismanagement and the causes of the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. Masataka Shimizu is expected to be questioned about his apparent plan to abandon the tsunami-stuck Fukushima plant during the height of the crisis.
