Fukushima Operator Tokyo Electric Plowing Ahead With Nuclear Restarts

International Business Times

Published Jun 26, 2014 09:11AM ET

Updated Jun 26, 2014 09:30AM ET

Fukushima Operator Tokyo Electric Plowing Ahead With Nuclear Restarts

By Meagan Clark - Tokyo Electric Power Co (TOKYO:9501), the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that an earthquake damaged in 2011, said Thursday at an annual meeting that it would restart nuclear reactors, rejecting bids from anti-nuclear shareholders to scrap the units over safety concerns.

TEPCO’s board argued shareholders should reject anti-nuclear activists’ proposals because the reactors provide a base of power without which the company cannot meet customers’ energy needs.

"Nuclear power is characterized as an important base-load power source in the nation's basic energy plan, and we see the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant as an important facility to secure a stable electricity supply," Executive Vice President Hiroshi Yamaguchi told the meeting, according to the Global Post.

Greenpeace and other activist groups holding TEPCO shares tried to sway the board to decommission the reactors and shift the company’s recovery plan to eliminate nuclear power. Campaigners before the meeting held banners saying, “No nuclear restarts!”, some wearing white-hooded coveralls and face masks designed to protect workers from radiation, Bloomberg reported.

TEPCO has already restarted two nuclear units in northwest Japan, though nuclear restarts in Japan are opposed by 59 percent of the more than 3,000 respondents to a poll in March by the Asahi newspaper.

The groups united to form the Nuclear Phaseout Tepco Shareholder’s Movement and proposed 10 motions, including the appointment of nuclear opponents to TEPCO’s board, halting construction of two reactors in northern Japan and improving working conditions, but all bids were rejected.