TEPCO to miss deadline on decontaminating Fukushima water

[yuiyoshida]

TOKYO —

The operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co, said Friday it would not be able to meet a self-imposed deadline to decontaminate water containing highly radioactive substances by the end of March.

The admission by TEPCO is another setback in its struggle to cope with the contaminated water, which is mostly contained in hastily constructed tanks.

TEPCO President Naomi Hirose visited officials at the Nuclear Regulation Authority on Friday to report that the company would not be able to process all the contaminated water by the end of March as promised.

“I feel very sorry that I was not able to carry out my promise to process (the contaminated water),” Hirose said.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/tepco-to-miss-deadline-on-decontaminating-fukushima-water

Prosecutors won't indict former Tepco execs over Fukushima

Japanese prosecutors have stuck to their decision not to indict three former Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) executives over their handling of the 2011 Fukushima disaster, but a rarely used citizen's panel could still force an indictment.

The prosecutors decided not to issue indictments because of insufficient evidence, a spokesman for Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office said on Thursday.

Prosecutors declined in 2013 to charge more than 30 Tepco and government officials who had been accused by residents of ignoring the risks of natural disasters and failing to respond appropriately to the nuclear crisis.

The Tokyo District Prosecutors Office reopened the case after a citizens' panel ruled in July that the three former Tepco executives, including former Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, should be indicted over their handling of the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
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[FBaggins]

1. One wonders how many of the anti-nukes knew this was even imminent

To read many of them, you wouldn't even know that those tankfulls of contaminated water were even being cleaned at all... let alone that the job was almost done.