TEPCO stages drill against Tokyo quake

Tokyo Electric Power Company has held a large-scale drill on the assumption that a major earthquake occurred under central Tokyo. About 300 people, including TEPCO’s new management, took part in the drill on Monday. According to the Japanese (NHK WORLD) website, the exercise was based on a scenario that a magnitude 7.3 quake had struck beneath Koto Ward near Tokyo Bay. That equals 6 plus on the Japanese seismic scale from 0 to 7. Under the scenario, power transmission lines and substations in the Tokyo metropolitan area were damaged. Utility officials confirmed the situation at local thermal power plants and then decided on power supply forecasts after possible suspension of power plants. They also used a video conference system to monitor the quake’s possible impact on the utility’s 2 nuclear power plants in Fukushima Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo. The utility says it hopes to restore public confidence in its crisis management ability by repeatedly staging such drills. Public confidence in TEPCO was damaged after the utility’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was heavily damaged by the quake and tsunami in March last year.