TEPCO hosted a record-breaking shareholders’ meeting, not only becoming he longest, but perhaps the most contentious in living memory.
“I apologize from the bottom of my heart for the trouble and fear that we have brought to our shareholders, and to society,” said the chairman, Tsunehisa Katsumata, at a tightly guarded Tokyo hotel.
“We will do our utmost to bring the accident to a resolution and to work toward our mission of providing a stable source of electricity,” he said.
Some investors refused to be placated. “Go jump into a reactor and die!” one elderly man shouted at the row of executives present, before being escorted out by attendants.
At one point, when Mr. Katsumata tried to wrap up a question-and-answer session, angry shareholders rushed the stage. The session was continued.
Another woman, her voice shaking, told the entire board that they were unfit to lead the company. She said the company had ignored warnings about the dangers of nuclear power.
“Shame on you!” she cried out. “You should all be sacked.”
via Tokyo Electric Power Defeats Shareholders’ Efforts to Exit Nuclear Business – NYTimes.com.
By HIROKO TABUCHI
Published: June 28, 2011
Naturally, TEPCO has been the center of several controversies. Previous actions, restitution, containment and clean-up, economic impact, corporate survival, and the future of energy in Japan are areas where TEPCO is being hammered by the public, the press, to some extent the government, and the international sphere. People are coming to the infuriating, stunning realization that a few pumps remaining in operation would have avoided most of the trouble after sunset on the day of the quake and tsunami. How hard is it to keep a couple of pumps running when you have a source of steam to power the pumps and any local control system?
Easy to criticise in hindsight, of course. But TEPCO (and GE/Hitachi, and a host of other actors, to be fair) had a duty to match the unthinkable horror of a complete failure with the unthinkable rarity of what just happened. Complacency is what really brought down these reactors, and now TEPCO is feeling the heat, in more ways than one.
