Head of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuke plant operator resigns

Katsutoshi Chikudate, a senior executive of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), will replace Masataka Shimizu as the company head, the Yomiuri newspaper said.

TEPCO has come under harsh criticism, including from Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan, for insufficient efforts to tackle the nuclear crisis, the worst since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Shimizu, was also criticized for staying in Tokyo for weeks before visiting the Fukushima prefecture in mid-April and apologize to those affected by the disaster, the website said. In March, he was reported to have been suffering dizziness and high blood pressure "through overwork" for a few days.

TEPCO has pledged to bring the crippled Fukushima Daiichi reactors to a stable state by January. The company's loss is expected to reach a historic maximum of $15 billion in the fiscal year ending in March due to recovery efforts, the largest deficit since the company opened in 1951, the NHK website said, quoting an indentified source close to TEPCO. Kazinform cites RIA Novosti. See www.en.rian.ru