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06 Jun 2011 08:30

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World: After huge losses, Tepco’s future leads its stock to nosedive

  • No one knows what will happen to Tepco in the future. We don’t even know whether the company will remain a private company or will the government take it over.
  • Fujimaki Japan’s Takeshi Fujimaki • Explaining why Tepco’s stock went down significantly today — at one point as far as 28 percent — after a financial report that suggested the company was in very bad shape. Simply put, many investors don’t think Tepco is long for this world as a private company and will need significant help from Japan to survive. The company could face $7 billion in losses for the current fiscal year — already on top of $15 billion lost in the prior fiscal year, which ended in March. That’s before any compensation costs are taken into account, by the way. Investors are betting on bankruptcy and/or public-sector takeover. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 May 2011 23:47

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Biz, World: TEPCO’s fiscal year could be one of Japan’s worst ever

  • ¥1.5 trillion yearly loss possible thanks to Fukushima source
  • » That’s $18 billion dollars, guys: While many parts of Japan struggle to recover from March’s earthquake, TEPCO’s financial loss — part of the reason the company’s president, Masataka Shimizum, likely plans to step down —would be downright dramatic. When it announces earnings today, the loss could be absolutely insane. But it wouldn’t be a record. That dubious honor goes to Mizuho Financial Group, which lost ¥2.38 trillion ($20.3 billion) in a single fiscal year back in 2003. Meanwhile, TEPCO struggles with power outages, a nuclear meltdown, and huge radiation-related claims that could top ¥11 trillion ($134 billion). These factors combined — which won’t be one-time payments — may force Japan to take the power company over.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 May 2011 18:32

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World: The scene of the tsunami at Fukushima Daiichi

  • TEPCO has released several photos of the catastrophic tsunami of March 11th, as it struck the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant. They are perhaps somewhat instructive, as they highlight the intense level of natural abuse the plant took that led to this ongoing crisis. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Apr 2011 16:10

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World: Doctor urges TEPCO to relieve stressed Fukushima workers

  • Examining doctor Takeshi Tanigawa says the workers could risk death. The doctor, who checked the beleaguered workers recently, has said the personal responsibility they feel to halt the crisis, along with terrible sanitation, little food, little sleep, and pressure from their families not to continue is causing extreme levels of stress, and could lead to depression or death from overwork. That’s all without mentioning the high level of radiation, which is extremely deleterious to health on its own. Tanigawa says TEPCO should mobilize all their employees and give these most dedicated workers a break: “Employees engaged in the dangerous work have human rights and wives and children just like others. We should not treat their lives without due respect.” source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Apr 2011 22:11

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World: TEPCO: Paying displaced residents … but cutting our workforce

  • 50k the number of households near Fukushima eligible for payments from TEPCO
  • ¥1M the amount that could be offered to each household — roughy $12,000 total
  • ¥50B the amount that would be offered based on that assessment —around $600 million source
  • » Raising money by cutting jobs? While Company President Masataka Shimizu didn’t speculate on what the final amount might be, he did point out a possible way to pay for said payments to local residents. They’re looking at cutting jobs to streamline operations and pay the people affected by the accident. “We must pursue rationalization that regards nothing as sacred,” he said. “We will make utmost efforts to raise funds.” Now, maybe we’re wrong here, but doesn’t it seem weird to cut employees after a massive disaster that had at least some root in safety issues?
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Apr 2011 14:03

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World: TEPCO begins draining radioactive water, tries to find major leak

  • lesser evil TEPCO has begun releasing thousands of tons of radioactive water into the ocean, freeing up space to store the much more dangerously radioactive water they now have to contend with, a release of which would be much worse.
  • square one Dye was used to determine the location of a leak of highly contaminated water, which TEPCO has fought for days. They didn’t see it in the ocean outside, meaning the leak is not where they’d been trying to plug the past couple days. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Mar 2011 12:04

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World: TEPCO corrections: Not “10 million times” normal level, “100,000 times”

  • errors As you might have noticed earlier today, TEPCO reported a level of radiation that was insanely high — 10 million times the usual level — coming from the water at a Fukushima reactor. This was very wrong, so much so that we took down our posts about this.
  • correctionsTEPCO apologized — while noting the amount was a still-very-high 100,000 times its normal level. “I am very sorry,” said TEPCO’s vice president, Sakae Muto. “I would like to make sure that such a mistake will not happen again.” Good apology, Muto. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

25 Mar 2011 17:35

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World: Japan Prime Minister on Fukushima: We’re not out of the woods yet

  • Don’t consider the situation at Fukushima settled just yet. That’s the message that Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, in his first statements on the matter in over a week, would like to make clear. “We are making efforts to prevent it from getting worse, but I feel we cannot become complacent,” he said. “We must continue to be on our guard.” Kan’s comments come in the wake of high instability at some of the plants — yesterday, two workers got radiation burns on their feet while working on Fukushima’s No. 3 unit, which is the most dangerous of the bunch due to its use of a mixture of uranium and plutonium. The situation led to fresh concerns about whether there might be a leak in that reactor. TEPCO officials are still looking for the cause of the high radiation levels. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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