Tokyo Electric Power, better known under the name of TEPCO, tries to restore its image. His vice-president, Norio tsuzumi, has for the first time apologized Tuesday to the Japanese for "anxiety and noise that [this] company has caused to nearby residents of plants, those in the prefecture Fukushima and the country as a whole. "
An almost perfect timing: since Monday, efforts to contain the risk of nuclear power plant in Fukushima seem to bear fruit. Financial markets even as subscribing, 24 hours later, the action of TEPCO gained 16% to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Yet the Japanese are ready to let bygones be bygones?
The stakes are high for a number of Japanese electricity.These days, TEPCO has been accused of concealing information about the magnitude of the threat and to have been negligent in the maintenance of these plants. "The media has been very critical of the company," says FRANCE 24 Evelyn Dourille-Feer, a specialist on Japan at the CEPII. Shadow of a similar fate to that of BP, media and business mired in the oil spill off the coast of Louisiana, flat on Tepco.
Tokyo Electric Power symbolizes the Japanese dependence of their countries towards nuclear power.The group built its first plant in 1971 and now supplies electricity to more than 30 million Japanese, mostly in the Tokyo area. Its energy empire makes it the fourth group in the world in this sector (behind Germany's E. ON, EDF French and German RWE).
Hazardous communication
But Tepco especially behind a reputation as a liar patented. In 2002, its CEO, Nobuya Minami, had to resign following a case of falsification of reports. Between 1977 and 2002, Tokyo Electric Power had returned to the state nearly 200 falsified documents to conceal a series of incidents within its nuclear plants.
A scandal that has dented the credibility of the sustainable group."Today, the Japanese are still very wary of what TEPCO said," said Evelyne Dourille-Feer.
Political power could take the bad reputation of TEPCO to make a perfect scapegoat.The government has explained on Tuesday that the group would have to compensate all the farmers around damaged plants. The Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, also complained last week that TEPCO had been slow to inform a new fire in one of these plants.
This is not the first time the authorities are attacking Tepco. Shortly before the earthquake, the group had agreed that all necessary safety measures in case of event impérvu had not been taken within its facilities. Incidentally, the Japanese have learned that false documents had been forwarded to the Japanese Nuclear Safety Agency on February 28, less than two weeks before the earthquake.Twenty state officials are on the premises of TEPCO last week to monitor that no information escapes them this time.
For now, Tepco defends itself by arguing that his plants have withstood the earthquake and the damage caused by the tsunami. A double disaster was difficult to predict, does she know. But the best way to get out of Tepco without too much damage is "to succeed in mastering the nuclear issue as soon as possible", says Evelyn Dourille-Feer.
Photo credit: J.Morganized / Flickr
