members of a polynomial have been looking into why tepco didn't disclose the plant's multiple meltdowns. they say orders came from the top, something officials deny. >> reporter: the preside. >> translator: the president was giving orders not to use the word "meltdown" because the prime minister's office said not to. >> reporter: it was a shocking revelation. the panel says tepco could have disclosed the meltdowns as early as three days after the accident but didn't because of a chain of command. the meltdowns occurred at three reactors following the earthquake and tsunami in march 2011 but it wasn't until may of that year until tepco officials used the word to describe what happened. thousands of residents still can't go home because of the accident, and local officials in fibbi fukushima are angry. >> translator: i have been infuriated by tepco's attitude many times before, and now this. people were talking about meltdowns soon after the accidents, but tepco stubbornly avoided using that language. finding this out now, five years after the fact, is simply unbelievable. >> reporter: te

he says tepco did conceal reactor meltdowns immediately after the march 2011 earthquake and tsunami. >> it is natural for the public to interpret the decision as a coverup. we deeply apologize. >> tepco only admitted to the meltdowns at the nuclear plant two months after the accident. and now some of the top staff at the utility will face repercussions. the president will have one month's pay cut by 10% and the managing executive officer in charge of nuclear power will have one month's pay cut by 30%. last week a panel reported that tepco's president at the time had instructed decisions not to use the word "meltdown." the report said he was following instructions from the prime minister's office. the prime minister at the time naoto kan, denied that accusation. >>> two u.s. aircraft carriers performed defense drills in the south china sea. the u.s. navy says that as a civic leader the country has an interest in maintaining security and prosperity and freedom of navigation and overflight. to make that point, it has been sending ships and planes through the disputed south china sea. be

tepco presidenent spokeke at th annual shareholders meeting. he said he takes the panel's findings seriously and will implement thorough measures to implement a reoccurrence. he said it includes drills. shareholders smutted ten proposals. they varied from restarting nuclear reactors quickly in order to reduce electricity bills to abolishing the power business to prevent accidents. >> translator: i agree that nuclear plants should be restarted as long as safety requirements are met. >> translator: the management isn't improving its compensation for fukushima or its plans to restart nuclear plans. >> about 1200 shareholders took part in the meeting. nine major japanese power companies including tepco held meetings on tuesday. >>> local officials in central japan say a government protected gorge has been vandalized possibly by rock climbers. city officials say they found at least 63 of these pieces of metal driven into the rocks at the gorge. they're believed to be rock climbing equipment. the area was designated a site of scenic beauty in 1934. i

he said tepco did conceal reactor meltdowns immediately after the march 2011 earthquake and tsunami. >> translator: it is natural for the public to interpret the decision as a cover-up. we deeply apologize. >> meltdowns occurred at three reactors following the disaster but tepco only admitted to this two months after the accident. a recent inquiry has found that company officials could have determined the reactors were in meltdown as soon as three days after the disaster if they had followed their own inhouse manual. hirose will take a one-month paycut of 10%. last week a panel reported that the company president at the time had instructed officials not to use the word "meltdown." the report said he was following instructions from the prime minister's office. naoto kan was prime minister at the time. he has denied the accusation. >>> indonesia has vowed to step up patrols in exclusive waters following a series of skirmishing with boats from china. >> three confrontations have been reported so far this year in the rich fishing grounds of the natuna islands in a corner of the south chi

but a recent inquiry has found that tepco could have determined that the reactors were in a state of meltdown as soon as three days after the disaster if it had followed its own in-house manual. in a news conference on march 14th reporters asked the vice president about the possibility that meltdowns had occurred. then an official showed the vice president a memo. >> translator: we cannot clearly explain what might be happening to the fuel in the reactors at this moment. >> muto did not call the condition meltdowns. a panel of experts commissioned by the company has been examining for three months what was behind the delay. >> translator: the memo stated that the president was giving orders not to use the word melt minister's office said not to. >> but the panel members say they could not track down who in the prime minister's office issued that order. tepco officials say they have revised their manual and that they will promptly announce such situations in the future. >>> japanese prime minister shinzo abe and close aide to russian president vladimir putin have greed to prepare for

when one of those metal plates shifted, tepco which installed the plate is being cited for this accident. ddot said the utility didn't meet permit conditions. it's not clear why it shifted, but they're looking to see if rain washed away that trench, causing the car to fall in and above it. >>> alexandria trying to get the attention of the faa over a change in flight paths, spurring some major noise complaints. the faa says the noise is a direct result of its shift to a modern, more sophisticated system for managing air traffic. it's called nextgen and it's said to reduce some carbon emissions, speed up departures and save millions in fuel costs. but it's also changed flight path s in some cities, leaving residents helpless and sleepless in fairfax county. >>> ledecky holds the world record in the .400 meter freestyle. she didn't have to come close to that in the trials, but she did, and she's punching her ticket to rio. she's trying to become the first u.s. woman to swim four races at a single olympics. euan yang talked to katie about how she's getting ready. >> reporter: katie ledecky i

tepco, the tokyo corporation that operated the nuclear plant, is now virtually bankrupt. japan's leaders are struggling to continue payouts to tens of thousands of their citizens who may never be able to return to homes contaminated by radiation. adding to the financial burden now are collapsing property values in contaminated areas and related increases nationally in the costs of alternative coal, gas, and oil. and then there is another human dimension: the slow future unfolding of cancer cases in those exposed to contaminants, particularly children. in february, 2013, a world health organization report said that radiation from fukushima posed minimal health risk to the general population of japan. but the w.h.o. acknowledged that emergency workers at the plant who inhaled high doses of radioactive iodine face an increased risk of developing thyroid cancer, and that children exposed as infants in areas closest to the power plant have a slightly elevated risk of contracting leukemia, breast, or thyroid cancer in their lifetimes. critics say that the health impacts of fuku