Nuclear plant operator destoys documents during investigation

Kyushu Electric Power destroyed documents on pluthermal plant proposal, panel claims

FUKUOKA -- The deputy chief of Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s nuclear power generation headquarters ordered documents on a pluthermal nuclear power project destroyed in connection with a campaign to realize the restart of reactors at the Genkai Nuclear Power Plant in Saga Prefecture, an investigative panel has found.

Nobuo Gohara, head of the utility's third-party panel investigating the case, told a news conference in Fukuoka on Aug. 9 that Akira Nakamura, the deputy chief of Kyushu Electric's nuclear power generation headquarters, instructed the destruction of the documents stored at the firm's nuclear power headquarters and Saga branch.

The discarded documents included data on briefings on the pluthermal project to be submitted to the central government, and the third-party panel says it will probe the case to see if Kyushu Electric had engineered a cover-up.

According to the third-party panel's findings, Nakamura ordered his subordinates to dispose of documents about a briefing on the pluthermal project at the Genkai power plant in October 2005 in response to a request on July 21 this year as part of an in-house probe.

Nakamura allegedly ...

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