GE’s Immelt, Tokyo Electric to Meet Amid Japan Reactor Crisis
Tokyo Electric Tries to Halt Leak
Japan Ministry of Defense via Bloomberg
Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to pour concrete into a pit near one of the damaged reactors at its stricken nuclear power station to stop radioactive water from leaking into the sea.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to pour concrete into a pit near one of the damaged reactors at its stricken nuclear power station to stop radioactive water from leaking into the sea. Source: Japan Ministry of Defense via Bloomberg
March 30 (Bloomberg) -- Damaged reactors at the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant in Japan may take three decades to decommission and cost operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. more than 1 trillion yen ($12 billion), engineers and analysts said. Bloomberg's Sara Eisen reports. (Source: Bloomberg)
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano
Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images
Yukio Edano chief cabinet secretary.
Yukio Edano chief cabinet secretary. Source: Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images
General Electric Co. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Immelt will meet officials from Tokyo Electric Power Co. as the Japanese utility battles a crisis at nuclear reactors designed by the U.S. company.
Immelt is going to Japan “to meet with employees, partners and customers including Tepco,” as the utility is known, Deirdre Latour, a GE spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. Tepco Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata and Immelt are to meet tomorrow or April 4, said Takeo Iwamoto, a spokesman for the Japanese company.
GE has put the “full force” of its employees and engineering teams into supporting Tepco as the power producer battles to stabilize the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Dai- Ichi nuclear power station, GE Vice Chairman John Krenicki said March 29. The facility’s reactors are based on a four-decade-old design from Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE.
A 9-magnitude temblor and subsequent tsunami on March 11 severed power and damaged reactors at the Fukushima complex about 220 kilometers (136 miles) north of Tokyo. Workers have been spraying water on the reactors to cool radioactive fuel rods in the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.
Reuters first reported the plan for Immelt to meet with Tepco officials. The details of the discussions are still being decided, Tepco’s Iwamoto said.
President Hospitalized
Katsumata, 71, took charge this week when Tepco President Masataka Shimizu, 66, was hospitalized March 30 because of high blood pressure. Shimizu won’t be gone from his post “for long,” Katsumata said.
Winds at the Fukushima plant are expected to blow from the west this afternoon at up to 10 meters a second (22 miles per hour), the Japan Meteorological Agency said today.
The Japanese government may buy a stake in Tepco as the company tries to recover from the disaster and subsequent nuclear plant radiation leaks that have stripped 80 percent of its market value.
“Taking a stake isn’t one of the options that has been ruled out,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said yesterday in a Tokyo news conference, following press reports and questions from reporters.
Public funds may be necessary to ensure Tepco can meet peak air-conditioning demand in the second and third quarters. Tepco powers a third of Japan’s economy, Standard & Poor’s said in a statement as it cut its rating on the utility’s long-term debt three levels to BBB+, the third-lowest investment grade. The rating will fall below investment grade without “extraordinary” government support, S&P said.
Rolling Blackouts
Burning imported natural gas for power generation to replace the disabled reactors will increase operating costs as the utility faces expenses of radiation cleanup, reactor dismantling and compensation, S&P said. Weakened credit will also raise Tepco’s borrowing costs.
Rolling blackouts have hampered industrial output and commerce since the earthquake, well before hot summer weather increases peak demand for power. Because Tepco’s electricity is crucial to the economy, government support is probable, S&P said.
In response to a question at a press conference, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said he wants Tokyo Electric to remain a private company “in principle.” He said that if Tepco can’t afford to compensate victims of the catastrophe, the government should help cover the costs.
Tepco’s Debt
No government stake in Tepco would exceed 50 percent, and the government may also offer a loan guarantee, the Mainichi newspaper reported, citing an unidentified government official.
Tepco has about 5 trillion yen ($60.7 billion) of bonds and loans outstanding, the fourth-most among members of the Nikkei 225 Stock Average after Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) and two banks, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The yield on Tepco’s 1.155 percent bond maturing in 2020 surged by almost 2 percentage points since the quake to 3.21 percent.
Moody’s Japan K.K. lowered Tepco’s credit rating by three levels to Baa1 from A1 on March 31 and said further cuts may be necessary. Problems at the damaged plant “appear far from being resolved” and the company is likely to remain unprofitable for a long time, Moody’s said in a statement.
Tepco said it restored eight radiation-monitoring devices in the plant, and the results range from 19 to 300 microsievelts per hour, compared with a normal range of 0.05 to 0.07 microsievelts per hour.
Wrong Data
The utility said March 31 that test results detecting radioactive iodine about 10,000 times the safety limit in underground water at the Fukushima plant may have been incorrect due to a software error. More than 12 hours later, it retracted the error and said the iodine readings were accurate, but it needed to re-analyze some data it released related to another radioactive substance, tellurium.
Tepco found the radioactive water near the No. 1 reactor turbine building while performing tests recommended by Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission. The confusion in radiation readings hurts the utility’s credibility and is “very regrettable,” said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
Tepco found plutonium in soil samples close to the site, reporting the concentration shouldn’t be enough to affect human health. Contamination of nearby seawater increased this week, with radioactive iodine rising to 4,385 times the regulated safety limit from 2,572 times, Nishiyama said.
There was 180 becquerel per cubic centimeter of radioactive iodine-131 found in seawater 330 meters (1,082 feet) south of the plant. One liter of water at that level equals double the annual average radiation humans receive from natural sources.
To contact the reporters on this story: Tsuyoshi Inajima in Tokyo at tinajima@bloomberg.net; Wes Goodman in Singapore at wgoodman@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Tighe at ptighe@bloomberg.net
Rate this Page