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March 21, 2013

Govt. tells TEPCO to add multiple power sources

      http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20130322_01.html

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary says the government has instructed Tokyo Electric Power Company to install multiple power sources at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Yoshihide Suga made the comment at a news conference on Thursday. The plant suffered a power failure on Monday evening. It took about 29 hours to restore power to all the affected cooling systems, which service spent-fuel pools.

Suga said the government instructed TEPCO to supply multiple power sources to the cooling systems at the plant. He added it told the utility to implement other efforts as quickly as possible to restore the public's confidence in the safety of the plant.

He said the government also told the firm to improve its risk management as the utility failed to promptly report the latest trouble to the authorities.

Suga added TEPCO's handling of the power failure has greatly damaged public trust in the company.