company will face mandatory indictment over their handling of the 2011 nuclear indictment at fukushima daiichi. nobody so far has been held had dismissed the complaint filed against the officials. the prosecutors earlier said the tepco executives could not have predicted a shake and tsunami with the same magnitude as that of the march 11th disasters. friday's decision means the mandatory indictments of former tepco chairman tsunehisa katsumata and former vice presidents sakae muto and ichiro takekuro for negligence resulting in death and injury. court appointed lawyers will act as prosecutors in the trial. in its decision, the panel said tepco should have taken measures to protect the plant from tsunami and flood triggered accidents after projecting a 15.7 meter tsunami hitting the plant. the precautions, a serious accident like the one in march 2011 could have been avoided. the leader of the local residents says she believes the court will determine who is responsible for the disaster and exercise fair judgment. >> translator: 110,000 people are still unable to return to their homes. based on

. >> james, this has obviously been a closely watched topic after the accident at fukushima daiichi. officials have decided how much different power sources should contribute to japan's energy needs by 2030. they say nuclear plants will still have an important role to play, but some experts have voiced concern. yoshihiko yamatani reports. >> reporter: an industrial presented on the first day. as expected, the government wants to bring the nuclear energy back online. none of the 50 or so nuclear reactors are currently in operation. by 2030 the government wants around 22% of the nation's power to be nuclear. that compares to 28% before the fukushima disaster. at the same time officials want more power generated from clean energy. they've set a goal of 24% from sources like wind and solar. that's more than twice the makeup in 2013. the government says the remaining energy needs should be met by thermal power which makes up 56% of the mix. some say the plan is realistic. nagano university professor says a life span of nuclear power plants currently set at 40 years means they can't meet t

. >>> the operator of the crippled fukushima daiichi nuclear plant has decided to resume dismantlinger of the number 1 reactor building. officials with tokyo electric power comp company say the work will begin later this month. the dismantling is part of efforts of decommissioning the facility. the number 1 reactor building was damaged by a hydrogen explosion. tepco workers installed the cover to prevent radioactive material from dispersing. the officials initially planned to start dismantling the cover last year to clear away radioactive rubble and spent nuclear fuel stored inside a pool in the building. the plan was postponed several times because of concerns about the dispersal of radioactive substances. engineers also found a problem with a device that controls the air flow in the building when dismantling work was set to begin in may. the engineers say they've addressed the problem. tepco officials decided to resume the dismantling work on july 28th as long as weather conditions permit. as part of the plan, chemical agents will be sprayed to prevent radioactive dust from being r

nuclear regulators say the reactor meets government requirements implemented after the fukushima daiichi disaster. officials with the nuclear regulation authority gave their unanimous approval. their backing removes one of the remaining hurdles to restarting the number three reactor at the ikata plant. critics have found fault with the operator's safety measures. they say assumptions about the magnitude of earthquakes are too low and they say measures to prevent a hydrogen explosion are insufficient. but regulators say they have taken sufficient steps to address such concerns. the reactor would be the fifth in japan to get the green light to resume operations. two reactors at a plant in kagoshima prefecture have also been approved. members of a civic group against the restart expressed their concerns. >> translator: even though the nra has approved safety measures for the reactor, there's no guarantee there won't be a serious accident or a large scale emission of radioactive materials. we can't say it's safe. >> shikoku electric must still win approval for equipment. and local officials

it imposed the ban in 2013 following the nuclear accident at the fukushima daiichi plant. officials from the two governments held talks in june. they met in geneva under wto procedures but failed to make any headway. as of monday japan has the right to bring the case to a wto dispute settlement panel. >> translator: i don't deny the possibility of holding further talks, but i think if we hold discussions in the same way, we will end up with the same results. >> officials at japan's fishery ministry said the wto would set up panel at japan's request. they say panel members would give their ruling in about one year. >>> bathroom and kitchen tiles can sometimes start to get a little unpleasant after just a couple of uses. a company in a japanese city famous for making towels has develop what had they think is a stylish solution to a smelly problem. >> reporter: this is the new product the company has developed. the towel on the left has underge a special process to keep it smelling fresh. the one on the right has not. they were moistened and kept in separate containers for ab

. >>> workers at fukushima daiichi have taken another step toward decommissioning the nuclear plant. they have started removing a protective cover from a reactor that was badly damaged in the 2011 accident. they say it's time to get on with the task of cleaning up what lies below. nhk world's juneo sumoto explains. >> reporter: workers controlling a remote-controlled crane carefully lift off one of the six panels. they put the panels there to stop radioactive materials escaping into the air, but now they've sprayed chemical agents over the building. tepco officials say that will ensure no dangerous particles spreads. they say workers can now safely get on with the job of removing debris. and later, they can tackle a more delicate job, extracting about 400 units of spent nuclear fuel from a pool below. fukushima residents are concerned that radioactive materials could leak into the atmosphere. they know a similar thing has happened before in 2013 when workers cleared contaminated debris from another reactor. workers were meant to start dismantling the cover from number one reactor las

. >>> workers at the crippled fukushima daiichi nuclear plant have completed a major undertaking. they've finished removing highly radioactive water from underground tunnels connected to the facility's reactor buildings. more than 10,000 tons of contaminated water flowed into the tunnels connecting reactors number two and three. experts feared the water might flow into the sea. last november workers started draining the tunnels and filling them with cement to prevent them from refilling. officials at the plant's operator say workers finished draining the number two reactor building's tunnels late last month and they say similar work has been completed in tunnels connected to the number three reactor building. the workers will continue the tunnels with cement until some time late next month. the original plan was to freeze radioactive water in sections of the tunnel, but that was unsuccessful. >>> french atomic energy giant areva says it will sell a majority stake of its nuclear reactor units to state-owned electricity company. areva has been in the red for four straight years. off