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Quake-Hit Tokyo Electric Slashes Earnings Forecast
Tokyo (AFP) Aug 04, 2007 TEPCO, the Japanese operator of the world's largest nuclear power plant, on Tuesday slashed its net profit forecast for the year by 80 percent after a powerful quake shut the facility down. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the world's biggest private electricity supplier, estimates the shutdown to cut net profit to 65 billion yen (550 million yen) in the year to March, down sharply from a previous estimate of 310 billion yen. The total cost would be 282 billion yen (2.3 billion yen) as the company makes up for the shortfall in power generation elsewhere. TEPCO made the forecasts on the assumption that the giant Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant northwest of Tokyo will remain shut for the rest of the year. "Because of the expected shutdown, we were forced to sharply cut our forecasts for the 2007 fiscal year," TEPCO president Tsunehisa Katsumata told a news conference. "These are very severe forecasts." "We cannot say for sure when the plant will resume operation," he said. The plant has been closed since a July 16 earthquake, which caused more than 60 problems including fires and a small amount of radiation leakage. TEPCO has said that there is no danger from the nuclear plant but it remains closed pending reviews by both the company and government amid public concerns. The company started the press conference with apologies to the public. "We apologise from the bottom of our hearts to local people and people in society for causing tremendous worries and nuisance," Katsumata said as he stood up and bowed along with more than a dozen company officials. The shutdown will cost some 282 billion yen as the company raises thermal power generation to make up the nuclear shortfall given higher prices for oil and other fossil fuels, Katsumata said. The 282 billion yen bill does not include repair and other costs that would emerge as the company resumes operating the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant. TEPCO now expects its total nuclear reactors to run at 44 percent capacity for the year, sharply down from 72 percent expected in April. Each one-percent fall in the nuclear utilisation rate would cost the company 11.5 billion yen, Katsumata said. TEPCO predicts its operating profit will fall 54.6 percent to 250 billion yen, revised down from a forecast of 530 billion yen announced in April. However, it still expects revenue of 5.44 trillion yen for the year, a notch higher than the 5.40 trillion yen it previously forecast. For the first three months of the fiscal year, the company reported net profit of 31.06 billion yen, down 35.4 percent, on revenue of 1.25 trillion yen, up 2.5 percent. Operating profit declined 39.2 percent to 64.62 billion yen.
Source: Agence France-Presse Related Links Nuclear Power News - Nuclear Science, Nuclear Technology Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com
US Congress To Scrutinize Nuclear Pact With India
Washington DC (AFP) Aug 04, 2007The US Congress has to determine whether an operational agreement of a landmark US-India nuclear deal is legal, the head of an influential House of Representatives panel said Friday. The statement by Tom Lantos, the Democratic chairman of the House committee on foreign affairs, came as two US arms experts warned that the civilian nuclear agreement was filled with "loopholes" that could be exploited by India to bolster its nuclear weapons program. The agreement has been approved by the two governments after exhaustive discussions spanning two years, but US law requires mandatory Congress approval of the pact, which was transmitted to lawmakers and made public Friday. |
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