As the first order of business today I would like to apologize from the bottom of my heart for the great concern and trouble caused by the accident that occurred at the Mihama No. 3 power plant on August 9th.

Authorities are currently investigating the cause of the accident, and we (Kansai Electric Power Company) are cooperating fully with their efforts. A full report on the situation will be made later.

In light of the fact that the accident resulted in numerous casualties at a nuclear power plant where an extremely high level of safety must be maintained, the Federation of Electric Power Companies views the accident with the utmost gravity.

We also recognize that it has seriously damaged public trust in nuclear power and the electric power industry as a whole. In view of the seriousness of the situation, we held a meeting of the Trust Restoration Committee today at which the heads of our member companies began discussions on the matter.

The Trust Restoration Committee was established in October 2002 to restore public trust in the electric power industry that had been lost as a result of various nuclear power problems. Since its founding, the committee has worked to achieve this goal through discussions, stricter adherence to law, and more open information disclosure.

At today's committee meeting, it was unanimously agreed that we must work on an industry-wide basis to ensure that such an accident never occurs again, and that based on further investigations into the cause, our top priority must be to respond in a timely and appropriate manner and implement measures to improve worker safety and address the pipe corrosion that is thought to have been the cause of the accident.

The heads of the various companies also expressed the opinion that in order to restore public trust we need to quickly take steps and develop plans to further improve technical safety.

One example cited was to utilize the Nuclear Information Archives (NUCIA), and review measures to improve lateral communication between electric power companies at home and abroad with respect to general and problem-related information, policies, and follow-up measures.

Other proposals are to work even more closely with the NSNet that was established improve nuclear power safety awareness, to evaluate issues from a standpoint that emphasizes the views of third parties, and to strengthen maintenance capabilities by improving communication with suppliers and other affiliated companies.

In the future, we will continue to work on an industry-wide basis to restore public trust, and will accord the highest priority to the safety and peace of mind of nuclear power plant site communities and the nation's citizens.

I would now like to briefly comment on the interim report recently released by the Electricity Industry Committee's Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy.

First of all, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Chairman Torii and the other committee members, as well as the members of the committee secretariat, for their spirited discussions in such a short period of time.

Nuclear power generation and the promotion of the nuclear fuel cycle that is its corollary are central to our nation's energy policy. As cost-based pricing has ceased to be viable in today's liberalized electricity market, and it has become essential that we implement cost-sharing economic measures to ensure smooth, stable development of back-end business operations, we applaud the report's findings, and believe that the implementation of financial measures is necessary to ensure fair competition and an equitable distribution of the financial burden between customers and current and future generations.

In accordance with the report's findings, we believe it is important to develop concrete systems and measures by the end of 2004, and we sincerely hope that the government will continue to do its utmost to bring this about.