Fukushima plant operator Tepco suffers massive loss

[alp227]

Source: BBC

Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, has posted a massive quarterly loss as it struggles to recover from last year's nuclear crisis.

The group made a loss of 288.4bn yen ($3.68bn; £2.35bn) in the first three months of 2012, compared with a 572bn-yen loss in the same period last year.

The losses are due to higher fuel costs and compensation payments to those affected by the Fukushima disaster.

It was the worst since Chernobyl.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19076033

[RobertEarl]

1. Not to worry

The government will make it all go away. </sarc>

But that is true. Government will socialize the losses. Who else is gonna pony up the trillions of dollars to begin to fix the worst (until now) industrial disaster ever.

[FBaggins]

4. If I type really slowly...

... can I remind you of Chernobyl... or bhopal... ???

[boppers]

6. Brown people and slavs don't count.

Especially if you're under 35.

[RobertEarl]

8. Bhopal was awful

And it killed lots of people. Few were evacuated. But the mess is afaik pretty well cleaned up and life goes on there. Afaik. If you know different, i'm listening....

Not so with Chernobyl. And Fukushima is equal to 4 of Chernobyl.

[boppers]

9. "Fukushima is equal to 4 of Chernobyl"

How so?

[RobertEarl]

12. 3 reactors melted and at least one burning fuel pool

Chernobyl was just one reactor. Chernobyl was covered up with a sarcophagus and is under control - kinda sorta. Fukushima is not under control. The pacific is polluted with waste from all four of the buildings at Fukushima - tuna off the coast of California have been found with the pollution in them. Kelp, too. Cesium was sampled all over the US by the EPA.

Here is a live feed from TEPCO Fukushima. On the right background is the burned building #4, to the left of that is the ruins of #3, and further left is #2 and #1.

http://mfile.akamai.com/127380/live/reflector:52045.asx

[boppers]

14. Some points:

1. Different size reactors, and failures.
2. "Melting" is not technically accurate.
3. All tuna, forever, and always, have always been radioactive. So are you.

Do you know how radioactive you are? This is not meant as a personal jab, an insult, or anything negative, but you do know that you are radioactive, yes? That you are bathed in it from inception, and share it with every living thing you meet?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Background_radiation

[RobertEarl]

15. Oh?

Fukushima had two reactors blow sky high.

Chernobyl was rated by the International people as a 7. Because 7 is the worst. There are 4 - 7's at Fukushima. The math is real simple.... 4 x 1 =4.

Three reactors are believed to have melted through the steel reactor containers. TEPCO is not sure what has happened because every robot they send in to examine the cores quits working real quick due to radiation.

Tuna now have cesium137 and who knows what else from Fukushima in them. Cesium 137 came from Fukushima. The tuna did not have cesium137 in them before. Why in the world would anyone try to whitewash this catastrophe? Why?

[boppers]

17. Fukushima has one minor melt, and two hydrogen explosions.

How many people have died at Fukushima?

How does that compare?

How many are expected to die?

How does that compare?

Why would anybody try to make it sound worse than it is?

[RobertEarl]

19. One minor melt?

Who are you trying to kid? I said there were 3 meltdowns. You calling me a liar?

Do you know why it is now being said it is ok to eat cesium137?

Because if we didn't eat it, we'd all starve. It is everywhere in the northern hemisphere. And it came from Fukuushima, and it isn't under control, it is still pumping cesium137 and strontium90 and iodine and who knows what else into the atmosphere.

Why would anyone want to whitewash this? Why? $$?

[RobertEarl]

23. Link to meltdown reports

http://enenews.com/top-japanese-nuclear-expertproponent-the-government-announcement-is-wrong-i-believe-all-the-fuel-rods-are-completely-melted-down-video

On that page are several other links to meltdown reports by experts in Japan and the US.

[boppers]

24. The news disagrees with you.

If you are alive, you have been ingesting cesium 137 since birth.

[RobertEarl]

26. Here's news - to you - from EPA

Where does cesium-137 come from?

Nonradioactive cesium occurs naturally in various minerals. Radioactive cesium-137 is produced when uranium and plutonium absorb neutrons and undergo fission. Examples of the uses of this process are nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. The splitting of uranium and plutonium in fission creates numerous fission products. Cesium-137 is one of the more well-known fission products.

http://epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/cesium.html#environment

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Having a discussion with you is like talking to a child. How old are you? And: we know you have an internet connection, do you ever use it to actually, y'know, study and research?

[boppers]

25. It does not work that way.

It's obviously written by somebody with no idea how these systems are built.

[Art_from_Ark]

5. The losses will have to be socialized one way or another

TEPCO provides electricity to roughly 1/4 of the population of Japan, including me. Their service area also includes the economic heart of Japan. So you basically have two choices here-- either raise the rates drastically on TEPCO customers, which could be devastating to many industries that are vital to the Japanese economy, or you spread the financial responsibility around the country via government payments made over several years.

[RobertEarl]

7. Yep

Saw today where the president of GE is saying nukes just don't make economic sense. About 50 years too late, but there it is, right from one of the heads of the capitalist hydra.

So how is it that such a mistake could be made in such a modern technological state?

[Amonester]

10. They better 'wake the f up' and fast...

Like 'they' do in 'CaSaPlanca'

Major CSP Project in Morocco Expected to Boost Manufacturing, Entrepreneurship
http://www.esmap.org/esmap/node/1325


Fuk u shima (plant, not people)

[Art_from_Ark]

11. One mistake was in underestimating the potentiality of tsunamis in the area

There have been tsunamis in the area before, but nowhere near as devastating as the one that occurred on March 11, 2011. The worst tsunamis in modern times occurred much farther to the north, and they were nowhere near as severe by the time they reached the Fukushima Dai-ichi area.

Ironically, though, other nuclear reactors that were both rattled by the earthquake and in the tsunami's wake (Fukushima Dai-ni and Onnagawa) did not suffer the same fate as Dai-ichi.

[RobertEarl]

13. Diet report

Stated that to their thinking the earthquake did the most damage to Dai-ichi. And that the operator of the plant failed to do the right thing.
~~~~~~~
There were many warnings for many years that this would happen. But it would have cut into profits to be prepared.

[Art_from_Ark]

16. The problem is, there are dire predictions for disasters for nearly every part of Japan.

For example, they're predicting a huge earthquake for the area between Tokyo and Nagoya. They're predicting another huge earthquake for the Tokyo area (and I think about that every time I travel the elevated, built-for-the-1964-Olympics Metropolitan Expressway). Some people are predicting a mega tsunami for Tokyo and elsewhere. And it seems that whenever there is a typhoon that comes to eastern Japan, the weather forecasters always paint it as much more severe than it turns out to be. So there is a tendency to downplay such dire predictions because of prediction overload, I think.

The tsunami defenses for Dai-ichi were built based on the historical tsunami records, which showed major damage much farther to the north (especially Iwate Prefecture) a couple of times in the previous 100 years, but far less damage in the Dai-ichi area. So I don't think you can blame it all on TEPCO's efforts not to cut into its profits. After all, the Fukushima Dai-ni complex just down the coast was also operated by TEPCO, but it survived the disasters without creating its own disaster.

[RobertEarl]

18. Dai-ni

The two reactors there are damaged. How bad? TEPCO is not telling. At least the buildings are intact. But then, so is #2 Dai-ichi, yet the core has melted.

TEPCO was warned about earthquakes and Tsunamis by some top-notch scientists. TEPCO said they were ready. Said there was nothing to worry about. They were not ready and there was much to worry about. Someone lied. Someone needs to be tried for that.

The government will do what it can. The best they can do is somehow make sure such a thing never happens again. Have the Japanese people any idea how to make sure it doesn't happen again?

[Art_from_Ark]

22. 3/11 was unprecedented

That part of Japan had never experienced such a devastating earthquake/tsunami in recorded history. TEPCO was basically going by historical precedents. The earthquake caused several system breakdowns, but the backup system at Dai-ichi was running until the tsunami wiped it out.

And TEPCO has been allowing the press into the Dai-ni complex since February of this year. Dai-ni could have been as bad as Dai-ichi, but it was able to keep the power going . According to the head of Dai-ni, "We were a 'sheet of paper's breadth away' from having the same conditions leading to core meltdown as they had at Fukushima Dai-ichi".

2012年2月8日、東北地方太平洋沖地震後、報道陣に初めて公開された。東北地方太平洋沖地震時の津波の高さは9mあり浸水は建屋の一部にとどまったが、原子炉冷却用海水ポンプ4基中3基が一時危険な状態に陥った。つまり、津波のため、原子炉の除熱に必要な海水ポンプ3基と、それらの電源が海水に水没した。ただ、外部からの高圧電源の1回線が生きており原子炉の温度、圧力や水位などの把握は可能であった。地震が土・日曜日であれば当直など40人であったが、事故は金曜日であり約2000人が働いており、総延長9kmケーブルを人力でつなぎ合わせ仮設電源も確保でき、事故4日後に冷温停止に至る対処が行えた。当時からの所長は「福島第一原子力発電所事故の炉心溶融と同様の事態になるまでに紙一重のところだった。」と明かした[11]。

[wordpix]

20. aw, did the CEO not get his $60 billion taxpayer-guaranteed loans for new reactors?

GE, behind the times. Should have been developing solar and wind decades ago; instead they supported nukes and f'd up the planet.

[chknltl]

2. Maybe some of our pro-nuke gang will dig deep to help out.

nuff said.

[thelordofhell]

3. Did they think they would make a profit??

Who do they think they are........BP??

[wordpix]

21. "The utility was, in effect, nationalised on Tuesday after the government took a 50.11% stake"

yup, the gov. is always the one to bail out industry after they f-up. Nothing like agreeing to take on a radioactive Superfund site for the next 100,000 yrs. I'm sure the Japanese citizens are thrilled with their new nationalized energy corp.