TEPCO officials apologize to Fukushima evacuees. Masataka Shimizu (L front), president of Tokyo Electric Power Co., and other company officials apologize on April 22, 2011, to residents of the village of Kawauchi and town of Tomioka in Fukushima Prefecture, who are staying in Big Palette Fukushima, a convention hall in Koriyama, after being forced to leave their homes near the company's crisis-stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Pool photo / Kyodo

FUKUSHIMA, Japan, April 22 (Kyodo) – Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato said Friday he will never allow Tokyo Electric Power Co. to resume operations at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. ”A resumption of plant operations must be impossible,” Sato told Masataka Shimizu, president of Tokyo Electric, known as TEPCO, who apologized for the nuclear emergency during their meeting at the prefectural government office. After the 15-minute meeting, Shimizu suggested to reporters he would step down at an appropriate time to take responsibility for the disaster. …

Fukushima gov. won’t allow TEPCO to resume reactor operations