Sept. 14 (UPI) — The president and chairman of Japan’s Chubu Electric Power Co. resigned Monday after an investigative report showed the company repeatedly manipulated seismic data to move forward with plans to restart nuclear reactors at a power plant in Shizuoka prefecture.
Company President Kingo Hayashi and Chairman Satoru Katsuno were expected to step down from their posts at the end of September, The Asahi Shimbun reported.
Senior Managing Executive Officer Minoru Yasui is expected to step into the role of president effective Oct. 1.
Chubu Electric Power Co. also withdrew its applications to restart reactors at the Hamaoka nuclear power plant in response to the release of the investigative report Monday, Kyodo News reported.
An investigative committee found that the company fostered an internal culture that encouraged employees to break the rules if they believed safety wasn’t compromised. The misconduct was tracked back to at least 2012.
The committee said the company manipulated at least 208 earthquake assessments to avoid delays in restarting the two nuclear reactors at the plant. The government had put in place strict safety rules for restarting nuclear reactors after a 2011 earthquake caused the Fukushima nuclear accident.
Whistleblower reports were filed twice — in 2019 and 2021 — but neither was appropriately handled, Kyodo News reported.
Hayashi and Katsuno offered apologies for their role in the misconduct during a news conference announcing their resignations.
“I would like to once again offer my deepest apologies for the repeated incidents of misconduct, which have caused great concern and inconvenience to local residents and many other stakeholders, and have seriously undermined the trust of society as a whole,” Hayashi said.
“I deeply apologize for having caused a result that has severely damaged trust in our company,” Katsuno said.
The company said that though it’s withdrawing its application to the Nuclear Regulation Authority to restart the Hamaoka nuclear plant, the importance of the plant to the public remains unchanged.
“I understand that the Nuclear Regulation Authority and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will take strict action against the company going forward,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said during Monday’s news conference.
“The government’s policy of maximizing the use of decarbonized power sources, such as nuclear power, remains unchanged.”