Động Đất Khủng Khiếp Ở Nhật (52)_URGENT: Edano suggests scrapping of all reactors at Fukushima Daiichi plant

URGENT: Edano suggests scrapping of all reactors at Fukushima Daiichi plant

TOKYO, March 30, Kyodo

Top government spokesman Yukio Edano suggested Wednesday that all of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant should be scrapped.

''It is very clear looking at the social circumstances. That is my perception,'' Edano said in a news conference when asked if all six reactors at the troubled nuclear plant should be decommissioned.

Earlier in the day, Tsunehisa Katsumata, chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Co., said the company sees decommissioning the Nos. 1-4 reactors at the plant as inevitable. ==Kyodo


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Tokyo Electric to scrap 4 reactors at crippled nuclear plant

TOKYO, March 30, Kyodo



Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday that it will scrap the four crippled reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant as the country struggles to bring the nuclear crisis under control weeks after a powerful earthquake and tsunami.

The utility said that while the cost of compensation in connection with the nuclear disaster will be daunting and will undermine it financially, the company will try hard to remain afloat and avoid nationalization.

''We have no choice but to scrap reactors 1 to 4 if we look at their conditions objectively,'' said Tsunehisa Katsumata, the company's chairman, at a news conference.

Since losing cooling functions following the deadly natural disaster on March 11, four of the six reactors at the nuclear power plant northeast of Tokyo have leaked radioactive materials into the air and sea.

While workers are continuing efforts to prevent the reactors from overheating and restore their cooling systems, all six reactors at the plant have been stabilized to some degree, Katsumata said.

But as the cooling systems have yet to be restored for the Nos. 1-4 reactors to bring them into a stable condition called ''cold shutdown,'' the company, known also as TEPCO, will make maximum efforts, Katsumata added.

The Nos. 5 and 6 reactors were already in a state of cold shutdown.

''We apologize for causing the public anxiety, worry and trouble due to the explosions at reactor buildings and the release of radioactive materials,'' Katsumata said at the news conference at the company's head office.

Earlier Wednesday, TEPCO said its president, Masataka Shimizu, was hospitalized Tuesday for hypertension and dizziness.

His hospitalization came after reports that Shimizu had fallen sick on March 16 and taken some days off from manning a liaison office set up between the government and the utility to regain control of the plant.

Katsumata has already taken over Shimizu's role temporarily in leading efforts to bring the crisis under control, the company said, adding that Shimizu would return to work as soon as he recovers.

It will not take long for Shimizu to return to work and resume taking the lead in handling the crisis, Katsumata said.

As to the managerial responsibilities he and Shimizu should bear, Katsumata said, ''Our greatest responsibility is to put everything into bringing the current situation to an end and under control.''

Shimizu has rarely appeared in public since attending a news conference on March 13, two days after the natural disaster wreaked havoc on northeastern Japan.

Reactors at the roughly 40-year-old plant built on the Pacific coast of Fukushima Prefecture lost cooling functions after the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami waves knocked out power, precipitating the nuclear crisis that has forced tens of thousands of local residents to evacuate.

==Kyodo