Japan Press Weekly

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2011 October 12 - 18 TOP3 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

Hokkaido utility suspends implementation of ‘pluthermal’ plan

Hokkaido Electric Power Co. (HEPCO) President Sato Yoshitaka on October 17 expressed his intention to postpone the introduction of HEPCO’s plutonium-thermal power project scheduled for next spring.

An Akahata scoop of August 26 about the manipulation of local residents’ opinions on the “pluthermal” project has eventually forced the utility to move to suspend the project.

Following the scoop, a third party investigated into the allegation and recognized that HEPCO had systematically been involved in the public manipulation attempt.

HEPCO President Sato at a press conference said that he will accept the third party’s conclusion and added, “I deeply apologize for the action resulting in a loss of the public trust.”

Hokkaido Prefectural Assembly member of the Japanese Communist Party Mashita Noriko stated, “HEPCO should decide to abandon and not just postpone or freeze the project promoted by its own fraudulence.”

Mashita also said, “Whistle-blowers entrusted to us to expose the truth, so we must thoroughly uncover the injustice.”

In late August 2008, a town meeting took place in Tomari Village in Hokkaido to hear local residents’ opinions on the “pluthermal” project for the Unit 3 reactor of HEPCO’s Tomari Nuclear Power Plant. HEPCO organized its employees to voice pro-“pluthermal” views by acting as ordinary villagers at the hearing. Such opinion hearings or briefing sessions on the “pluthermal” project came to a close with this hearing, and Hokkaido Governor Takahashi Harumi in March 2009 gave the go ahead for the project. However, the governor was later found to have received political donations from HEPCO executives up until 2009.