|
by Eric Talmadge, Associated Press Writer April 15, 2003 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030415/ap_on_re_as/japan_nuclear_2 TOKYO - Staggered by a series of scandals, Tokyo's main power company shut down the last of its 17 nuclear reactors for safety checks Tuesday, meaning Japan's capital may soon face its first blackouts in nearly two decades. Tokyo Electric Power Co. took the final reactor offline at midnight, said company spokesman Mamoru Shirakashi. Operations at the 16 other reactors run by the company, known as TEPCO, already have been halted. The closures represent an unprecedented crisis in Japan's power industry. Though a system glitch left some 3 million people in Tokyo without power in 1987, TEPCO — the world's largest electric utility — says the city has never faced blackouts due to a shortfall in supply. Senior government officials were quick to voice their concern. "Unless we can restart the facilities whose operations are halted now, we will inevitably face power shortages," said Yasuo Fukuda, the top spokesman for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet. "The government will do all it can," he said. But he did not offer any suggestions on what the government could do. To break its heavy reliance on imported oil, resource-poor Japan has long pursued an ambitious nuclear power program. The country today gets about 30 percent of all its energy from nuclear reactors. The industry has been plagued by accidents and coverups of lax safety practices, however. TEPCO was ordered to suspend operations for a thorough safety review after it admitted last year to covering up structural problems and obstructing government inspections at its reactors a decade ago. The admissions only deepened concerns raised in 1999 by Japan's worst-ever nuclear accident, when an uncontrolled reaction at a fuel-reprocessing plant north of Tokyo killed two workers — later found to have been illegally mixing uranium in buckets — and exposed at least 600 people to radiation. No date has been set for restarting TEPCO's nuclear reactors. That will depend on how long it takes to complete the safety checks and "earn the public's understanding," spokesman Shirakashi said. In the meantime, TEPCO plans to compensate for the shutdown, which accounts for about 40 percent of the electricity consumed by Tokyo and its surrounding areas, by reactivating five thermal power plants and purchasing surplus electricity from other power companies. Even so, it forecasts a shortfall of 9.5 million kilowatts — the equivalent of the output from 10 nuclear reactors — when air conditioner use peaks in Japan's sweaty summer months. See also:- Power shortage looming large in Japan as nuclear reactors shut down.
|
|
