- Visiting General Electric Co. CEO Jeffrey Immelt said
Monday that the nuclear power plants it sells worldwide are safe despite
the crisis the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant GE built more than 40
years ago is going through.
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- "This is an industry with an extremely safe track
record for more than 40 years," Immelt told reporters after meeting
with Banri Kaieda, the minister of economy, trade and industry.
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- Immelt did not respond to questions about GE's responsibility
as the manufacturer of the Fukushima plant, which was crippled when the
tsunami flooded the facility and cut power to its critical cooling systems.
But Hitachi President Hiroaki Nakanishi, who attended the meeting with
Immelt, said the two firms are tackling the nuclear crisis to "fulfill
that responsibility."
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- GE wholly built one of the six reactors at the Fukushima
plant that was damaged by the March 11 earthquake and subsequent tsunami.
It built two others jointly with Toshiba Corp.
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- Immelt told Kaieda that GE is ready to provide its utmost
support to help resolve the crisis at the plant, including the most urgent
matter of restoring the reactors' cooling systems, a METI official told
reporters at a briefing.
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- GE and Hitachi, which are involved in a nuclear power
plant joint venture, sent about 1,000 people to the site soon after the
crisis began.
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- Immelt also told Kaieda that GE is ready to support Tokyo
Electric Power Co., which is responsible for managing the nuclear power
plant and for supplying electricity to the Kanto region, in compensating
for the loss of power caused by the crisis.
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- "We already have gas turbines on a boat being shipped
to Japan," Immelt said after the meeting.
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