TEPCO's credibility came under fire again when it was revealed May 26 that the head of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant continued pumping in seawater after company superiors issued instructions to stop.
TEPCO's credibility came under fire again when it was revealed May 26 that the head of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant continued pumping in seawater after company superiors issued instructions to stop.
Although the official turned out to be correct, such an important decision normally requires the president of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. to sign off on it.
Not only was there a breakdown in internal communications, but TEPCO officials have until now insisted that the seawater pumping was temporarily suspended.
At a May 26 news conference, Sakae Muto, a TEPCO executive vice president, was asked when company executives learned that Masao Yoshida, the Fukushima plant head, had gone ahead and continued pumping in seawater.
"With the pumping of seawater becoming an issue, we conducted a hearing May 24 and 25," Muto said. "Because (Yoshida) is also scheduled to be questioned by the International Atomic Energy Agency, he said he wanted to file a report based on the facts so that this can be used as an international lesson."
According to TEPCO, the pumping of fresh water into the No. 1 reactor was stopped at 2:53 p.m. on March 12. The company began pumping in seawater at 7:04 p.m.
However, at 7:25 p.m., Ichiro Takekuro, a TEPCO official who was at the Prime Minister's Official Residence, contacted TEPCO headquarters in Tokyo and told them, "We do not have the approval of the prime minister. They are discussing what to do."
Executives at TEPCO headquarters held a video conference with Fukushima plant officials and the decision was made to stop the pumping of seawater.
On May 21, the central government and TEPCO released a statement saying that TEPCO had independently made the decision to stop pumping in seawater. At that time, the explanation was made that the pumping resumed at 8:20 p.m. on March 12 after an instruction to do so from Kan.
Although TEPCO told officials of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency that the pumping of seawater began at 7:04 p.m., that information was not passed on to the Prime Minister's Official Residence.
However, that course of events was pieced together from what TEPCO officials at Tokyo headquarters said as well as memos found at TEPCO. No effort was made to confirm what actually happened with those working at the Fukushima plant.
At a May 23 session of the Lower House special committee on rebuilding after the Great East Japan Earthquake, Sadakazu Tanigaki, head of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, criticized Kan for his handling of the situation.
TEPCO officials hurriedly questioned Yoshida and other Fukushima plant officials on May 24 and 25 and learned that the pumping in of seawater actually had never stopped.
"I continued with the pumping of seawater based on the judgement that the most important thing was to continue with pumping water into the reactor core in order to prevent the spread of the accident," Yoshida reportedly said.
Yoshida told TEPCO officials he wanted to explain the facts because the issue was turning into a major problem in the media and the Diet and also because an investigative team from the IAEA had arrived in Japan.
The head of a nuclear plant has the authority to decide what measures to take when an accident takes place. On March 12, TEPCO officials sent a fax to NISA at 8:20 p.m., informing the agency of the start of pumping in of seawater.
The same record was included in a report of an analysis of the accident submitted May 23, as required by law.
Although TEPCO said the plant head has the authority to deal with normal accidents, for more important decisions, such as pumping in seawater to a reactor core, the confirmation and approval of the company president was required.
In the latest case, the pumping in of seawater was begun after gaining the approval of Masataka Shimizu, company president. However, TEPCO executives later decided to suspend the pumping based on what they thought the mood was at the Prime Minister's Official Residence.
The video conference held among officials at TEPCO headquarters and the Fukushima plant included both Shimizu and Yoshida as participants, but Yoshida ignored the instructions from top executives and decided to continue with pumping in seawater.
Muto said the decision was appropriate from a technical standpoint and considering the need to maintain safety at the plant.
However, TEPCO officials are considering disciplinary action against Yoshida because he kept quiet about what actually happened for more than two months.
"It is difficult to understand why several days had to pass before revising the facts of a previous announcement," said Kenji Sumita, professor emeritus of nuclear engineering at Osaka University. "Repeated changes to announcements will affect the process of examining the accident. It would be natural to suspect the reliability of other records."