Japan: Utility sorry for ‘meltdown’ ban after Fukushima

TOKYO (AA) - The chief of a Japanese utility that operates the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex apologized Tuesday over a “cover-up” that saw his predecessor instruct officials against using the term “meltdown” immediately after the 2011 nuclear disaster.

"It is extremely regrettable. People are justified in thinking it a cover-up," local news agency Kyodo quoted Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) President Naomi Hirose as saying at a press conference.

The apology comes after the publication of a report compiled by a third-party commission that said TEPCO’s then president Masataka Shimizu had told a vice president not to use "core meltdown" during a press conference held three days after reactors at the plant suffered serious damage.

According to the report released Thursday, pressure from the office of then Prime Minister Naoto Kan would have likely been a factor in Shimizu’s instruction that the term be avoided.

No details, however, were provided on what the pressure may have entailed.

On March 11, 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami damaged four reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant, melting the cores in three of them.

The disaster had devastated the country’s northeastern region, leaving 15,894 people dead and 2,561 others missing and presumed dead.

More than 150,000 people were forced to leave their homes, around 100,000 of whom remain evacuees five years later.

The commission that compiled the report published last week said they had not interviewed former PM Kan or Yukio Edano, then chief Cabinet secretary, as they lacked authorization to do so - an allegation denied by the politicians.