TEPCO president under fire from Japan lawmakers

TOKYO: Japanese lawmakers grilled the president of the company at the centre of the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, demanding he take responsibility for the disaster.

Appearing in parliament for the first time since a huge earthquake and tsunami crippled its Fukushima Daiichi plant, the head of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) faced a barrage of criticism from politicians.

"What do you plan to do to take ultimate responsibility (for the crisis)?" one opposition lawmaker asked TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu, 66, who has rarely been seen in public since the tsunami swamped the plant on Japan's northeast coast.

"These documents contain very strict safety rules," said Shuichi Kato of the opposition New Komeito party, brandishing a copy of the company's own safety regulations. "This says the president regards nuclear safety as the top priority. With this in mind, let me ask how you feel now?"

Shimizu's appearance came a day after TEPCO said it would be nine months before the plant's six reactors could be put into "cold shutdown" -- a stable condition in which temperatures drop and radiation leaks fall dramatically.

Tens of thousands of people living near the plant have had to evacuate their homes since the March 11 disaster, which sparked a series of explosions that have caused radiation to leak into the air, soil and sea.

Shimizu delivered a brief apology over the crisis on March 13, but then fell ill and was not heard of again until nearly a month later when he visited Fukushima, meeting local officials but not residents made homeless by the radiation spewing from the plant.

"If you did your best, then why did it explode?" asked Communist Party lawmaker Mikishi Daimon, accusing the company of failing to prepare for such an event and pressing Shimizu to "admit TEPCO caused the accident."

Shimizu, who has repeatedly apologised over the crisis, defended TEPCO's performance, saying the devastating tsunami was "beyond our expectations." "As the person who assumes final responsibility for coordinating the safety strategy for the nuclear power plant, I acknowledge the seriousness of this incident," he said. "I cannot find words enough to express my apology."

Shares in TEPCO are down almost 80 percent since the quake and tsunami on expectations it will face huge compensation claims totalling around 10 trillion yen ($120 billion) according to some estimates.

The TEPCO president appeared Monday as a witness at the hearing of the parliament's cross-party budget committee, which also grilled Prime Minister Naoto Kan over his government's handling of the nuclear crisis.(AFP)