Protesters urge TEPCO to pay compensation
Source: Agencies |
April 14, 2011, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
SMALL business owners and laborers forced to leave their homes and jobs because of radiation leaking from Japan's tsunami-flooded nuclear plant traveled by bus to Tokyo yesterday to demand compensation.
People are growing increasingly frustrated with Tokyo Electric Power Co's handling of the crisis, which has progressed fitfully since the March 11 tsunami swamped the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, knocking out important cooling systems. Restoring them will take months.
About 20 people who lived and worked near the plant traveled 220 kilometers southwest to hand-deliver a letter to the president of TEPCO.
They said talks with the government over how to compensate victims will take too long to get started and they wanted money now. They met near company headquarters with four TEPCO officials who bowed to them in apology.
Masataka Shimizu, the company's president, later apologized during a two-hour news conference and pledged to do more, saying cash payments would be made as soon as possible and the company would do its best to get the plant's reactors under control and stop radiation leaks.
The government earlier this week revised its rating of the severity of the crisis to level 7, the worst possible on an international scale.
The only other level 7 was the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl, though that explosion released 10 times the radioactivity that has come from Fukushima Dai-ichi so far.
Meanwhile, the government downgraded its economic outlook for the first time in six months yesterday, saying in a Cabinet report that drops in production and consumer spending would limit growth.
Yesterday the ravaged northeast coast had some rare good news as the Sendai airport reopened. It had been closed since the 10-meter wall of water raced across the runways and slammed cars and aircraft into the terminals.
Airport staff waved on the tarmac at passengers emerging from the first flight, a Japan Airlines Express plane emblazoned with the logo "Hang in there, Japan."
The airport will handle only a few daytime flights for now, but its opening should help with relief efforts in communities hit by the disasters.
People are growing increasingly frustrated with Tokyo Electric Power Co's handling of the crisis, which has progressed fitfully since the March 11 tsunami swamped the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, knocking out important cooling systems. Restoring them will take months.
About 20 people who lived and worked near the plant traveled 220 kilometers southwest to hand-deliver a letter to the president of TEPCO.
They said talks with the government over how to compensate victims will take too long to get started and they wanted money now. They met near company headquarters with four TEPCO officials who bowed to them in apology.
Masataka Shimizu, the company's president, later apologized during a two-hour news conference and pledged to do more, saying cash payments would be made as soon as possible and the company would do its best to get the plant's reactors under control and stop radiation leaks.
The government earlier this week revised its rating of the severity of the crisis to level 7, the worst possible on an international scale.
The only other level 7 was the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl, though that explosion released 10 times the radioactivity that has come from Fukushima Dai-ichi so far.
Meanwhile, the government downgraded its economic outlook for the first time in six months yesterday, saying in a Cabinet report that drops in production and consumer spending would limit growth.
Yesterday the ravaged northeast coast had some rare good news as the Sendai airport reopened. It had been closed since the 10-meter wall of water raced across the runways and slammed cars and aircraft into the terminals.
Airport staff waved on the tarmac at passengers emerging from the first flight, a Japan Airlines Express plane emblazoned with the logo "Hang in there, Japan."
The airport will handle only a few daytime flights for now, but its opening should help with relief efforts in communities hit by the disasters.
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