Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

TOKYO --Caved-in roads, warped pipes, washed away cars, and mounds of rubble and earth -- the premises of the Hirono thermal power station of Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (TEPCO), located in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, was completely devastated after being struck by the massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11. On March 18, a week after the earthquake, the Denki Shimbun was able to interview three workers of the power plant. While little information has been reported to date as to damage suffered by thermal power plants, the interview provided a glimpse of actual conditions. At the time when the earthquake occurred, the Hirono power station's units 2 and 4 were in operation, units 1, 3 and 5 were off line, and unit 6 was under construction. Units 2 and 4 shut down automatically upon detecting the strong tremor of the earthquake. At the unit 6 construction site, dozens of workers were installing the steel frames of the turbine and boiler buildings. Some of them were working as high as 30 m above the ground. When the workers were shaken by the sudden tremor, they had no option but to cling to the steel frames for the time being. All workers climbed down to the ground and evacuated immediately after the tremor had subsided.