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TEPCO

U.S. military personnel launch US$5 billion lawsuit against Tokyo Electrical Power Company

Lawsuit claims Tepco misled scale of 2011 Fukushima disaster, causing relief workers to be exposed to radiation.

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The planned “Great Ice Wall” to contain Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant isn’t freezing

More than three years after the earthquake and tsunami devastated northeast Japan and left a major nuclear plant in Fukushima paralyzed, efforts to contain the nuclear disaster are still facing major hurdles as the area around it remains a ghost town. Last week, Tokyo Electric Power Co., better known as TEPCO, revealed that an ice wall that was designed to stem the flow of radioactive water seeping from the crippled reactors at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant isn’t freezing as fast as they hoped.

In the three months since construction began, temperatures in the ground around the barrier meant to contain the contaminated water in underground trenches have only fallen to around 15 degrees (59 degrees Fahrenheit) and TEPCO announced a new plan to accelerate the freezing process—dumping 10 tons of ice every day until the wall forms.

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Each of Mao Asada’s Olympic performances led to a power station’s worth of electricity demand

On 16 March Tokyo Electric Power Comanpy (TEPCO) announced that they discovered a significant increase in power consumption during the early mornings of 20 and 21 February. Those times coincided with both the women’s short program and free skate events in which Mao Asada competed. In each case the increase in demand equaled the amount put out by an entire fossil fuel power plant.

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Inmate of Tohoku prison within nuclear evacuation zone sues TEPCO for emotional distress

It’s been three years since the March 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami disaster swallowed up whole cities and caused one of the worst nuclear power disasters in history. For much of the world the devastating event is a distant memory – except for people in California who, for some reason, to this day think swimming in the ocean is going to give them three eyes or four boobs or something.

But for many living near the crippled Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant, like the inmates at a Kagoshima City prison located within the nuclear evacuation zone, the Tohoku earthquake and the persistent effects of the subsequent nuclear disaster altered their lives forever; so says a former inmate who is formally suing TEPCO for emotional distress.

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Tokyo Electric plans to end 2013 in the black

On 16 October reports have come out of Tokyo Electric Power Co. that they are working on a restructuring plan which will allow them to end the financial year with a profit for the first time since 2011.

The goal to end 2013 in the black was said to be a condition set by the various lending institutions to allow future refinancing. Needless to say, Japanese netizens have been thrilled at the news.

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Tokyo Electric Couldn’t Get Battery during Fukushima Meltdown, Made Trip to Hardware Store the Next Day

Recent tapes released have sent ripples across Japan’s news programs showing first-hand Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO) handling of the Fukushima Disaster.  Many were outraged over TEPCO management’s muddled communications with plant director, an increasingly frustrated Masao Yoshida.

Among the hours and hours of footage there’s one particularly odd incident in which one of the largest electric companies in Japan couldn’t seem to get their hands on a battery.  In fact, it took about a 24 hours and trip to the hardware store to buy it while on the brink of meltdown.

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Tokyo Electric Employee’s Children Targets for Bullying, Forced to Give Money to Classmates to Repay Rate Hikes

Tokyo Electric Power Company has lost a considerable amount of goodwill following last year’s nuclear disaster.  While the level of blame that should be placed on the company as a whole is still to be determined, low level employees of the company often face the immediate brunt of the hostility.

It appears now that even the children of TEPCO employees are having to answer for the choices their parents’ employers made by their classmates. But how are elementary school students so up to speed on the nation’s energy situation?

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According to a book recently published by Tomohiko Suzuki, a freelance journalist who went undercover as a laborer at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant for two months this year, people who were unable to repay loans from yakuza gangs were forced to work at the site as a means of repaying their debts. Tokyo Electric issued a refutal, calling the claim that organized crime would be allowed to influence the recruitment process “groundless”.
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