The head of General Electric, which 40 years ago designed
the boiling water reactors at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, met
plant operators in Japan Monday and defended the nuclear industry’s safety
record.
More than 1,000 workers from GE’s joint venture with Hitachi
have been dispatched to Japan to assist Tokyo Electric Power Co. as it tries to
restore cooling to multiple reactors and spent fuel tanks. GE CEO Jeffrey
Immelt joined them Monday and met with TEPCO executives and Japanese government
officials.
"We have more than 1,000 engineers who have worked
around the clock since the incident began, and we will continue short-term,
medium-term and long-term work with TEPCO due to this horrific national
disaster," Reuters quoted Immelt as saying at a press conference.
"But this is an industry that operated effectively for 40 years. And that's
my expectation."
GE also announced earlier that it will send 20 gas
turbines to Japan to help the country supplement electrical generation knocked
out by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.