Japan's TEPCO reports big loss after quake hits nuke plant Tokyo (AFP) April 30, 2008 Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the world's largest nuclear plant which was hit by an earthquake last year, on Wednesday reported an annual loss of about 1.4 billion dollars. It was the first time the firm has plunged into the red at the group level since it began releasing consolidated earnings in 1994, a company spokesman said. A powerful quake in July 2007 caused a slew of problems at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant including a fire and a small radiation leak. While no one was hurt, the plant supplying the Tokyo region remains shut down and the company was forced to shoulder higher prices for oil and other fossil fuels as it raised thermal power generation to make up the nuclear shortfall. Tokyo Electric, or TEPCO, said its annual net loss came to 150.1 billion yen (1.44 billion dollars), against a net profit of 298.2 billion yen the previous year. The world's largest private electricity company booked an extraordinary loss of 269.2 billion yen for inspections and repairs to the nuclear plant in Niigata Prefecture, some 220 kilometers (136 miles) northwest of the capital. Operating profit plunged 75.2 percent to 136.4 billion yen. But revenue rose 3.7 percent to 5.48 trillion yen on higher electricity sales as companies boosted factory production in the recovering economy and people cranked up the air conditioning during an unusually hot summer. TEPCO has forecast a net loss of 40 billion yen for the first half of the current fiscal year on revenue of 2.84 trillion yen. It gave no forecast for the full year, saying it was hard to project costs amid uncertainty about when the damaged nuclear power plant will resume operations. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Civil Nuclear Energy Science, Technology and News Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com
Dispute over Russian shipment to Iran to be resolved soon: Baku Baku (AFP) April 30, 2008 Azerbaijan's blocking of a shipment of Russian equipment for Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant will be resolved "in the nearest future" after Russia provided information on the cargo, Azerbaijan's foreign ministry said Wednesday. |
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