August 29 2002

Tokyo --- Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) today announced  
that there may have been problems with maintenance work at its 
nuclear power plants between the late 1980s and early 1990s. 
TEPCO is now conducting internal investigations to reveal what 
actually took place during this maintenance work. 

These maintenance problems came to light following  
notification by General Electric International Inc. (GEII.) 
GEII is one of the main nuclear power plant maintenance 
companies working for TEPCO. After this notification, TEPCO 
set up an internal investigative committee headed by Mr. 
Tsunehisa Katsumata, executive vice president, and started an 
investigation at the end of May 2002. So far, TEPCO has found 
29 cases at 8 units in 3 stations.

TEPCO, in co-operation with GEII, has conducted a safety 
analysis of parts of the units such as shrouds and jet pumps. 
TEPCO and GEII have not confirmed any safety problems, and have 
reported these findings to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety 
Agency (NISA) of the Japanese government. NISA stated that these 
cases have no serious impact on the safety of the reactors in 
operation. 

TEPCO is now conducting thorough internal investigations and 
will complete its examination by mid-September. Following 
these investigations, TEPCO will publicly announce the 
findings, as well as measures to prevent a recurrence.

We, TEPCO, would like to express our sincere apologies for 
causing any concern to those in the vicinity of the nuclear 
power stations, and to all parties involved. 

In the present situation, TEPCO has decided that it is not 
currently in a position to request permission to load MOX fuel 
into its reactors at the Fukushima and Kashiwazaki Kariwa 
Nuclear Power Stations.