OSAKA -- Kansai Electric Power Co. announced Wednesday that it has taken punitive measures against Vice President Hajimu Maeda and five other executives for announcing false test data on plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel, which delayed Japan's planned use of the fuel for nuclear power generation.

Maeda and two other board members were reprimanded while three other executives were given warnings and had their salaries cut.

Separately from these punishments, President Hiroshi Ishikawa and three other board members will return 30 percent of their monthly pay for two months, according to company officials.

in a series of data falsifying scandals, Kansai Electric failed to report to authorities late last year that quality-control data had been falsified by supplier British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. The MOX fuel was to be used at the company's nuclear plant in Takahama, Fukui Prefecture.

The company released an interim report on the falsification incident Wednesday, but no details were unveiled. BNFL claimed doing so would "violate human rights of employees."

It also announced countermeasures.

The company said it will establish a quality-control team at its nuclear fuel department to strengthen a system of checks of BNFL and other overseas suppliers.

It will also launch a safety-control commission of experts and board members in June, and increase the number of staff at the company's quality inspection department.

In Tokyo, upon receiving the interim report from KEPCO, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry decided to soon set up a subcommittee to work out measures to prevent similar incidents, inviting experts from outside, ministry officials said.

The subcommittee will be under the Electric Utility Industry Council, an advisory panel to the trade ministry, the officials said.