Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Looming power crisis could cost electric firms 2 trillion yen
Efforts to overcome Japan's looming power crisis may cost the country's nine major electricity companies as much as 2 trillion yen in total a year, it has been learned.
With Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO)'s Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant knocked out by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and the temporary shuttering of Chubu Electric Power Co.'s Hamaoka nuclear power plant, electric companies across Japan are facing the need to boost generating capacity as well as switch to non-nuclear power sources, heaping staggering new costs onto their balance sheets.
Seven of the nine firms fear they will not have a reasonable level of backup generating capacity for Japan's steamy summer months, while rising oil prices are pushing up the cost of non-nuclear power generation. Meanwhile, the possibility of rising electricity charges coupled with an uncertain power supply presents a serious threat to Japan's economic performance.
According to the nine power firms, a combination of regular inspections, the March 11 disaster and other causes have put 37 of Japan's 54 commercial nuclear reactors out of operation. Seventeen are now supplying power to the grid, but five of those must also be shut down for regular inspections by the end of August. The power companies are considering firing up reactors that are now under inspection to meet summertime demand, but local governments have stated that the central government must come up with new nuclear safety standards before they will let any reactors go back into commission.
Read more at http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110607p2a00m0na007000c.html
Japan doubles Fukushima radiation leak estimate
The amount of radiation released by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the days after the 11 March tsunami could have been more than double that originally estimated by its operator, Japan's nuclear safety agency has said.
The revelation has raised fears that the situation at the plant, where fuel in three reactors suffered meltdown, was more serious than government officials have acknowledged.
In another development that is expected to add to criticism of Japan's handling of the crisis, the agency said molten nuclear fuel dropped to the bottom of the pressure vessel in the No 1 reactor within five hours of the accident, 10 hours earlier than previously thought.
By the end of last week, radiation levels inside the reactor had risen to 4,000 millisieverts per hour, the highest atmospheric reading inside the plant since the disaster.
The agency also speculated that the meltdown in another reactor had been faster than initially estimated by the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco).
It is not clear whether the revised account of the accident, the world's worst since Chernobyl in 1986, would have prompted Tepco to respond differently at the time.
Read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/07/japan-doubles-fukushima-radiation-leak-estimate