Ex-Tepco chief denies planning to abandon Fukushima reactors

The former president of Fukushima plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co denied on Friday that he had ever considered pulling out all of the plant's workers as they battled the worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl.

Masataka Shimizu had been accused by then prime minister Naoto Kan and others of planning to abandon the tsunami-stricken plant in March last year, as reactors melted down and the situation risked spinning out of control, threatening Tokyo itself.

"I was not saying that we would withdraw everyone," Shimizu told a high-profile investigative panel appointed by parliament.