Tokyo Electric Power Co. admitted Thursday that its latest problem with radioactive water has shattered the trust it was building in Fukushima, especially among fishermen, and that the decommissioning of the Fukushima No. 1 plant might be delayed.

"To make progress with the decommissioning effort and solve the tainted-water issue, the trust of the people in Fukushima is the most important thing. We've been working with that in mind, but unfortunately, we have damaged that trust this time," said Naohiro Masuda, president of Fukushima Daiichi Decontamination & Decommissioning Engineering Co., the internal unit in charge of scrapping the meltdown-hit plant.

"Due to the damaged trust, all of the schedules for the decommissioning tasks could be delayed, but we'd like to rebuild trust as soon as possible," so Tepco can improve the plant's condition faster, said Masuda, who peppered the news conference with repeated apologies.