Japan may order Tokyo-area industry to conserve power. 0403-for-RADIATION-web.jpg (Image JPEG, 950x984 pixels) - Redimensionnée (60%) Tokyo Electric claims could top $130 billion on Japan. The Cost of Fukushima. How much will the Fukushima nuclear power disaster cost the Tokyo Electric Power Company, the Japanese economy, and the Japanese taxpayer?
A rough estimate based on current conditions is something around $50 billion. TEPCO's salable assets are only worth about half of that. The costs of the problems at TEPCO's Fukushima Number One nuclear power plant fall into several areas: The direct costs of trying to contain disaster and stabilize the damaged reactors. This includes costs to TEPCO as well as costs being borne by public agencies such as the Japan Self Defense Force, fire services, and so on.The costs to TEPCO of lost sales of the electricity formerly generated at the facility.The costs to individuals and businesses caused by the blackouts imposed by TEPCO due to its sudden loss of generating capacity. This estimate seems realistic when compared to BP's costs associated with the Macondo blowout. This Reuters article has some estimates of TEPCO's costs. Calculations: Fukushima vs. Deepwater Horizon. There are many parallels between the impacts of the nuclear power plant disaster at Fukushima Number One and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster.
But there are also significant differences based onA nuclear facility on land compared to a hole in the bottom of the Gulf of MexicoA monopoly supplier of electricity compared to a supplier of a oil, a fungible commodityThe much more substantial resources of BP compared to TEPCO, and its early assurance that it would cover all reasonable claims and costs. The five million barrels of crude oil released from the Macondo blowout after the Deepwater Horizon rig failure disrupted fisheries and contaminated coastline, affecting many businesses. The radioactive contamination being released into coastal waters at Fukushima is causing economic losses to fisheries and other businesses in a similar fashion. How are the costs of these events similar, and how do they differ? BP's Costs The U.S. Summary of Macondo Blowout Costs 1. 2.
Is Nuclear Power Too Risky? Are some energy investments so unpredictable and potentially unprofitable that governments should promise to cover the downside risk for private companies involved?
The nuclear power generation industry seems to think so. Many energy investments carry significant risks of expensive disaster. Examples: The Buffalo Creek Flood (Pittston Coal Company dam failure) of 1972 cost 125 lives and destroyed hundreds of homes.The Piper Alpha disaster in the North Sea in 1988 cost 167 lives.The Three Mile Island accident of 1979 cost the plant's owners, General Public Utilities and Metropolitan Edison, more than a billion dollars in containment and clean-up costs, legal settlements and other costs, as well as loss of electricity sales from the destroyed reactor, which had only been on line for 13 months, and from the other reactor at the site which was shut down until 1985.
Two hundred thirty-four people died in the Chuandongbei natural gas field explosion in China in 2003 (see NYT article). Tepco’s Reactors May Take 30 Years, $12 Billion to Scrap. Damaged reactors at the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant may take three decades to decommission and cost operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. more than 1 trillion yen ($12 billion), engineers and analysts said.
Four of the plant’s six reactors became useless when sea water was used to cool them after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out generators running its cooling systems. The reactors need to be decommissioned, Tepco Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata said today. He couldn’t give a timeframe. All the reactors, including Units 5 and 6, will be shut down, and the government hasn’t ruled out sealing the plant in concrete, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters today in Tokyo.
Le colmatage du réacteur n° 2 de Fukushima échoue.
Eco expliquée.