POWER INDUSTRY:IN AN angry confrontation with executives at Tokyo Electric Power on Wednesday, Naoto Kan, Japan's prime minister, demanded to know "what the hell was going on" at the utility's critically damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station.
He also delivered a warning: “If you abandon the plant, I guarantee Tepco will collapse.”
Tepco has not given up its desperate battle to cool overheated reactors and spent fuel tanks at the plant, which was spewing out ever more dangerous levels of radiation yesterday, six days after the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami.
But even if it manages to bring the emergency under control, Tepco’s future looks bleak.
In the short term, the utility faces severe difficulties keeping the lights on in Tokyo and the eight surrounding prefectures its serves — an economically crucial area of 44 million people that consumes a third of Japan’s electricity.
The earthquake not only knocked out 10 of Tepco’s 14 operational nuclear reactors — six at Fukushima Daiichi and another four at the less critical Daini plant nearby — it also damaged oil, coal and gas power plants accounting for roughly 20 per cent of Tepco’s thermal generating capacity.
Rolling power cuts and government pleas to save electricity have reduced consumption by about a quarter. But Tepco is struggling to cope: supply was barely covering demand on Thursday, prompting Tepco to warn of possible uncontrolled blackouts in Tokyo.
“They are in a serious bind,” says Tetsunari Iida, executive director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies, a research group. He blames Tepco and regulators for a narrow-minded focus on nuclear power generation.
Tepco faces even more daunting problems financially. Even in relatively unlitigious Japan, it will be sued, though awards by Japanese courts are rarely crippling. More serious will be the bill for repairs and the additional fossil fuels needed to make up its nuclear shortfall.
The Fukushima Daiichi station is a write-off and in any case is likely to be dangerously radioactive for a long time. The extent of damage to Daini is unclear. Even if repairable, prospects for restart are poor.
Tepco’s own reputation is also at rock bottom and may not recover. It was already grappling with issues of trust after several scandals and accidents.
Mr Kan criticised its slowness in reporting a hydrogen-gas explosion that damaged the roof of the Daiichi facility’s No 1 reactor on Saturday, and questions are sure to be asked about why military fire engines were called to the site only on yesterday, six days after the crisis began. – (Copyright The
Financial Times Limited 2011)