Chubu Electric chiefs quit over falsified quake data at Hamaoka reactors
Chubu Electric Power's president and chairperson are resigning after an outside panel found years of manipulated seismic data for two Hamaoka reactors, prompting the utility to withdraw its restart applications.
The president and chairperson of Chubu Electric Power Co. will resign after an external investigation concluded that the utility had for years submitted manipulated earthquake safety data for two reactors at its Hamaoka plant, the company said on Monday.
President Kingo Hayashi said he and chairperson Satoru Katsuno would step down on Sept. 30 to take responsibility for the affair. Director Minoru Yasui will be promoted to the presidency on Oct. 1.
The outside panel found that Chubu Electric had long supplied altered seismic figures for the Hamaoka No. 3 and No. 4 reactors so that the numbers would satisfy regulatory requirements. With the credibility of that safety data now in serious doubt, the utility has decided to withdraw its pending applications to restart the two units.
Hayashi said the company faced deep-rooted problems. "We had serious problems with our corporate culture and governance," he said, adding that rebuilding public trust was the utility's foremost task.
Neither Hayashi nor Katsuno was directly implicated in the data manipulation. The investigation found, however, that top management had made an early restart a key business goal and had sharply reprimanded the team handling the restart permit over the lengthy screening process, which may have pushed staff toward misconduct.
Chubu Electric filed for safety screening of the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors in 2014 and 2015. The Nuclear Regulation Authority suspended that review in December after months of internal investigation triggered by a whistleblower's tip.
Two other reactors at the Hamaoka plant are being decommissioned and a fifth is idle. The site, roughly 200 kilometres west of Tokyo, sits on a coastal stretch exposed to potential risks from Nankai Trough megaquakes.
Hayashi said nuclear generation would remain an important part of the energy mix and that the utility intended to reapply for the restarts after introducing preventive measures, restructuring and making a fresh start.
Japan has been gradually bringing reactors back online since the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi disaster, when a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami caused meltdowns at three reactors run by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings. The restart programme has gathered pace under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's government amid rising energy costs and pressure to cut carbon emissions.
Public opinion on nuclear power remains divided because of lingering safety concerns, though acceptance has grown as households contend with higher fuel bills linked to the fallout from the Middle East conflict. Of Japan's 54 commercial reactors, 11 are operating, 20 are offline and more than 20 are being decommissioned, according to the Nuclear Regulation Authority.