Business | FYI: Kepco Mar 29, 2020
A closer look at Kansai Electric and its gift-giving scandal
by Eric Johnston
Earlier this month, Kansai Electric Power Co. concluded that scores of its employees had received cash and gifts worth hundreds of millions of yen from an influential politician in a Fukui Prefecture town where the utility operates a nuclear power plant. The revelations by ...
National | Regional voices: Chubu Mar 27, 2020
Japan’s first commercial light-water nuclear reactor started operations in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, on March 14, 1970. Fifty years later, those involved look back on the project with mixed feelings. In that era, nuclear power was touted as a key future energy resource. But now, following the ...
Business / Corporate Mar 15, 2020
Kansai Electric ordered to improve operations over bribery scandal
The government on Monday ordered Kansai Electric Power Co. to improve its business operations following a bribery scandal involving the former deputy mayor of a town hosting one of its nuclear plants. Taizo Takahashi, head of the Natural Resources and Energy Agency, summoned Kansai Electric ...
National Feb 15, 2020
Japan Atomic accused of altering data about fault under Tsuruga reactor
The Nuclear Regulation Authority on Friday accused Japan Atomic Power Co. of modifying the original geological data used to determine whether a fault under the Tsuruga power plant's controversial No. 2 reactor is active or not. The nuclear watchdog is screening the safety of the ...
National | Regional voices: Chubu Jan 31, 2020
Japanese turn to crowdfunding to pay for public-interest lawsuits
When a Nagoya-based citizens group calling for the decommissioning of an over 40-year-old nuclear power plant kicked off a crowdfunding campaign in October to cover costs for ongoing litigation, it successfully raised about ¥3.7 million, 1.5 times the target amount, in about two months. The ...
National Jan 29, 2020
Kepco to halt two nuclear reactors after missing counterterrorism deadline
Kansai Electric Power Co. said Wednesday it would suspend operations at two nuclear reactors after missing a deadline set by the industry regulator to build counterterrorism facilities. Under stricter rules implemented after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, utilities are now required to build emergency off-site control ...
National Jan 27, 2020
Japan begins second removal of spent MOX fuel from nuclear reactor
Operations have begun to remove a rare type of spent fuel made of plutonium-uranium mixed oxide from a nuclear reactor in central Japan, operator Kansai Electric Power Co. said Monday. The removal of MOX fuel rods from the No. 3 reactor at the Takahama nuclear ...
National Jan 23, 2020
Mayor of Saga town that hosts nuclear plant admits he got cash from firm tied to Kepco scandal
Shintaro Wakiyama said that the money was received days after he was elected, in July 2018, from a then executive of Shiohama Industry Corp.
National Dec 11, 2019
Nuclear watchdog OKs decommissioning plan for two reactors at Kepco's Oi plant in Fukui
The nation's nuclear watchdog approved a plan Wednesday to decommission two reactors in Fukui Prefecture, a move their operator decided to take rather than shoulder the high cost of implementing safety upgrades. Kansai Electric Power Co. will spend ¥118.7 billion to dismantle the Nos. 1 ...
National / Media | MEDIA MIX Dec 7, 2019
News outlets take time to connect the dots in Kepco gift scandal
by Philip Brasor
In September, media reported that 20 executives of Kansai Electric Power Co. (Kepco) had, for a decade or so, received almost ¥320 million worth of cash and gifts from Eiji Moriyama, the former deputy mayor of Takahama, Fukui Prefecture, who died in March at ...
National Nov 23, 2019
Kepco 'donated' at least ¥4.3 billion to nuclear plant host town Takahama since 1970s: sources
A town in Fukui Prefecture hosting a Kansai Electric Power Co. nuclear power plant received at least ¥4.3 billion in "donations" since around 1970 from the company, currently at the heart of a gift scandal involving its late deputy mayor, sources familiar with the ...