While progress has been slow in efforts to contain the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, signs are emerging that Tokyo Electric Power Co., in the absence of its president, is failing to accurately inform the public about radiation risks.
On Sunday morning, Tepco announced that the concentration of radioactive materials in water found inside a turbine building adjacent to the No. 2 reactor was "around 10 million times (that of) water in a normal reactor core." But the utility later corrected that information, saying it had "made a wrong estimation."
On March 21, at Tepco's head office in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, a public relations officer kicked off a news conference simply by saying, "We have a supplementary remark to make.