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Angry shareholders demand Japanese nuclear power shutdown

“TEPCO should just shut down,”   “If we have another Fukushima, Japan will not survive.”

Japan utility behind nuclear crisis faces angry shareholders at annual meeting, Yahoo 7 Finance By Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer | Associated Press  TOKYO (AP)  26 June 13, — Shareholders angry at the utility company behind Japan’s nuclear catastrophe peppered executives with questions Wednesday about leaking radioactive water and demanded a phase-out of atomic power.

Fifteen such motions from shareholders, including those demanding that Tokyo Electric Power Co. start supporting alternative energy and require executives to donate their pay to victims of the March 2011 nuclear disaster, were defeated at an annual shareholders’ meeting…… “Please think of our suffering, our uncertainty, our fear of living with radiation,” said Ryuko Tachibana, a stockholder from Namie, a town near the plant evacuated after the accident. “Material wealth does not lead to human happiness.”

Other investors also got up during the nearly four hour meeting at a downtown Tokyo stadium to express outrage at the company’s handling of the catastrophe and its aftermath……..

Although some in the crowd shouted at and heckled the executives, the stadium was also packed with investors allied with TEPCO. Security guards were everywhere, and one excited anti-nuclear shareholder got his microphone turned off and was told to sit down.

TEPCO officials repeatedly bowed and apologized for the “troubles and worries” the disaster had caused. But they acknowledged they did not know when the leaking radioactive water would end because water was crucial to keep melted fuel cool and it was a technological challenge to find exactly where the leaks were.

They also said the company would likely be dependent on government aid for a long time because of the challenges of decommissioning the reactors and decontaminating radiated land around the plant……

Mariko Asada, who owns 100 shares, said she had to evacuate her Fukushima farm, where she had been growing her own food.

“TEPCO should just shut down,” she told The Associated Press. “If we have another Fukushima, Japan will not survive.”http://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/japan-utility-behind-nuke-crisis-071631568.html

June 27, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, opposition to nuclear