Tepco admits further data falsification

[Mainichi, 1 March; Tepco, 2 March]Tokyo Electric Power Company admitted six further occasions whenworkers failed to record safety issues at nuclear plants to the NuclearIndustrial Safety Agency on 1 March, in addition to three alreadyknown. One of the new events concerns the breakdown during trial of a diesel back-upgenerator at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa 3 that went unrecorded in 1995. An emergency shutdown of one of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa units in 1992 was also unrecorded. Another concerned the exceeding ofthermal output by 0.1% at Fukushima 1 on five occasions between 1991and 1998 for which workers entered figures below actual output.  "Weapologize from the bottom of our heart for causing anxiety to thepublic and local residents, " said Tepco vice President KatsutoshiChikudate. Six other falsification events which occurred at non-nuclearthermal power plants were also disclosed.