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Feedback - Land of culture and safety
culture
Jose Julio
Rozental
Israel
Daily Yomiuri Japan - 12:01 1 Sep
2002
Yomiuri Shimbun http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20020902wo31.htm Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) hit by new allegations
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), which was found to have falsified records of inspections at its nuclear power plants, also concealed faults found in government-ordered inspections, sources said Saturday. Since last year, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has ordered electric power firms to carry out inspections, yet TEPCO avoided inspecting welded sections of core shrouds on which cracks had been found but concealed. TEPCO later told the agency that no faults were detected with the core shrouds, the sources said. The agency plans to question TEPCO officials as it suspects the company intentionally excluded the damaged parts from the inspection so it would not have to replace or repair them. During the latter half of the 1980s and the 1990s, TEPCO entrusted inspections of its nuclear power plants to General Electric International Inc. (GEII). Though GEII found cracks on welded sections of the core shrouds, TEPCO altered the inspection records to hide the problem. GEII's inspection found a total of 35 cracks in eight locations at five nuclear power reactors in three power plants, but the plants continued their operations without the sections being repaired or replaced. The reactors included the No. 4 reactor at Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture; the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 reactors of Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant; and the No. 1 reactor of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture. TEPCO eventually reported the most serious case, a 1.4-meter-long crack in the No. 3 reactor of the Fukushima No. 2 plant, to the agency in July last year, saying that the firm had found it during its voluntary inspection that month. After receiving the report, the agency instructed electric power companies with nuclear power plants to inspect core shrouds in September last year. The agency gave the order because it feared similar cracks might have occurred on identical nuclear reactors and that they might lead to safety problems
http://www.tepco.co.jp/index-e.html Tokyo Electric Power Co. Press Release (Aug 29, 2002 Investigation of maintenance work at TEPCO's nuclear power plantsTokyo --- Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) today announced that there may have been problems with maintenance work at its nuclear power plants between the late 1980s and early 1990s. TEPCO is now conducting internal investigations to reveal what actually took place during this maintenance work. These maintenance problems came to light following notification by General Electric International Inc. (GEII.) GEII is one of the main nuclear power plant maintenance companies working for TEPCO. After this notification, TEPCO set up an internal investigative committee headed by Mr. Tsunehisa Katsumata, executive vice president, and started an investigation at the end of May 2002. So far, TEPCO has found 29 cases at 8 units in 3 stations. TEPCO, in co-operation with GEII, has conducted a safety analysis of parts of the units such as shrouds and jet pumps. TEPCO and GEII have not confirmed any safety problems, and have reported these findings to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) of the Japanese government. NISA stated that these cases have no serious impact on the safety of the reactors in operation. TEPCO is now conducting thorough internal investigations and will complete its examination by mid-September. Following these investigations, TEPCO will publicly announce the findings, as well as measures to prevent a recurrence. We, TEPCO, would like to express our sincere apologies for causing any concern to those in the vicinity of the nuclear power stations, and to all parties involved. In the present situation, TEPCO has decided that it is not currently in a position to request permission to load MOX fuel into its reactors at the Fukushima and Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Stations. |