Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), operator of the quake-crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, said Wednesday the company’s president has been hospitalized, according to Kyodo News.
TEPCO spokesman Takehiko Yamanaka said that Masataka Shimizu was sent to a Tokyo hospital due to dizziness and high blood pressure on Tuesday. Shimizu has not appeared in public since attending a news conference on March 13, two days after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Northeastern Japan.
Japanese reports said Monday Shimizu, 66, became ill on March 16 and took some days off from going to an office set up by the Japanese government and TEPCO to contain the nuclear crisis centered at the plant.
TEPCO Chairman and ex-President Tsunehisa Katsumata, 71, will be in charge of the nuclear crisis in the absence of Shimizu, Bloomberg News reported.
Katsumata will host a news conference on behalf of Shimizu regarding the plant at 3:00 p.m. local time on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Tuesday that TEPCO was inadequately prepared for a tsunami at the plant. The sea wall at the plant could only withstand an 18-foot wave, while the actual tsunami was more than 40 feet high.
“It’s undeniable their assumptions about tsunamis were greatly mistaken,” Kan said Tuesday in an address to the Japanese Parliament, according to Bloomberg News. “The fact that their standards were too low invited the current situation.”
TEPCO spokesman Takehiko Yamanaka said that Masataka Shimizu was sent to a Tokyo hospital due to dizziness and high blood pressure on Tuesday. Shimizu has not appeared in public since attending a news conference on March 13, two days after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Northeastern Japan.
Japanese reports said Monday Shimizu, 66, became ill on March 16 and took some days off from going to an office set up by the Japanese government and TEPCO to contain the nuclear crisis centered at the plant.
TEPCO Chairman and ex-President Tsunehisa Katsumata, 71, will be in charge of the nuclear crisis in the absence of Shimizu, Bloomberg News reported.
Katsumata will host a news conference on behalf of Shimizu regarding the plant at 3:00 p.m. local time on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Tuesday that TEPCO was inadequately prepared for a tsunami at the plant. The sea wall at the plant could only withstand an 18-foot wave, while the actual tsunami was more than 40 feet high.
“It’s undeniable their assumptions about tsunamis were greatly mistaken,” Kan said Tuesday in an address to the Japanese Parliament, according to Bloomberg News. “The fact that their standards were too low invited the current situation.”
