Japan nuclear regulator berates Fukushima operator

Japan’s atomic watchdog summoned the boss of Fukushima’s operator Tepco on Friday for a public dressing-down over sloppy standards at the crippled nuclear plant, as yet another problem with contaminated water emerged.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) called in Tokyo Electric Power president Naomi Hirose and other executives over “the inappropriate management of contaminated water”.

“The problems have been caused by a lack of basic checks,” NRA secretary general Katsuhiko Ikeda told Hirose.

“I can’t help but say that standards of on-site management are extremely low at Fukushima Daiichi,” Ikeda said, adding the utility should strengthen its staffing, including by sending workers from other nuclear plants.

Hirose apologised to Ikeda and pledged to increase efforts to deal with the ongoing trouble “by using all the company’s resources, including people, equipment and money”.

The meeting came as it was revealed a key system to decontaminate radioactive water at the plant had stopped again.