TEPCO starts operation of Fukushima headquarters

TOKYO - The runner of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), starts operation its headquarters in the tsunami-hit Fukushima Prefecture to cope with nuclear disaster after a catastrophic earthquake in March, 2011.

The headquarters, comprising a 30-employee working team headed by TEPCO's Vice President Yoshiyuki Ishizaki, located in Naraha, some 20 kilometers south of the Fukushima Daiichi, Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported Friday.

TEPCO said it will double its efforts to reconstruct Fukushima and will take responsible actions to overcome the nuclear accident, the world's worst nuclear disaster followed Chernobyl.

The company said it will also increase the number of workers in the prefecture by about 500 by the end of 2013 to more than 4,000.

TEPCO was criticized by Japanese for its slow progress in decontamination work since the disaster occurred.

Japanese's new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said immediately after he formed his "crises breakthrough" cabinet that the utmost importance of the cabinet is to accelerate reconstruction in the northeast Japan and called for all cabinet members to combine their efforts to achieve the goal.

Abe also visited the nuclear plant on December 29 and reiterated that his government will speed up reconstruction progress in the region.