TEPCO Had Deferred Frozen-Soil Water Shielding Plan

Tokyo, Sept. 18 (Jiji Press)--Tokyo Electric Power Co. <9501> had once deferred a plan to create frozen-soil groundwater shields at its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station, due to huge costs, a former senior government official revealed on Wednesday. Earlier this month, the government said it will spend 32 billion yen to build underground walls by freezing soil around reactor buildings to keep groundwater away from the nuclear plant in northeastern Japan. TEPCO was initially scheduled to announce the water shielding plan on June 14, 2011, about three months after the nuclear plant was stricken by the earthquake and tsunami, Sumio Mabuchi, a senior member of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, said at a party meeting. As an aide to then Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Mabuchi was in charge of the water shielding plan at the time. TEPCO asked then industry minister Banri Kaieda, currently leader of the DPJ, to postpone the announcement as it was concerned about the equity market's possible negative reaction to some 100 billion yen in costs involved in the plan, Mabuchi said. The government then agreed to put off the announcement to avert any confusion in the market, Mabuchi added. According to Mabuchi, he obtained then TEPCO Executive Vice President Sakae Muto's confirmation that the company would proceed with the water shielding plan without delay. At the DPJ meeting on Wednesday, however, Junichi Matsumoto, a senior TEPCO official, denied the confirmation by the then TEPCO vice president. END