TEPCO

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President of TEPCO, 2010, by [1]

TEPCO, or Tokyo Electric Power Company is the biggest electric company in Japan that owns several nuclear plants. For June 2011, the president of the company is Toshio Nishizawa [2].

TEPCO become famous after the gradual infolding or the Fukushima disaster since rank 4 to rank 7 in the spring of 2011. With that disaster, TEPCO set the world's absolute record of the financial losses [3] and cannot pay the compensations without the help from the Japanese government [4]. The sum or reparation is difficult to estimate, it may count of order of 100 bullion dollars, id est, from \)10^{11}\( to \)10^{14}\( dollars.

Fukushima Disaster

Under the handling by Masataka Shimizu (President of TEPCO), Akio Komori (Managing Director of TEPCO) and then also Kan Naoto (prime minister of Japan), the Fukushima disaster unfolded and developed since rank 4 to rank 7 in 2011 [5][6][7]. The absence of President at Fukushima and the attempts to hide the information might be among various causes of the developing of the disaster since level 4 to level 7. Similar sabotage took place in the USSR at the Chernobyl disaster: that time, during several days since the reactor explosion, the soviet veterans did not even announce the disaster; first, the large scale emission of unstable isotopes by the exploded reactor was discovered by the observers in the Western Europe.

See the special article Fukushima disaster for the details.

TEPCO reactors

Perhaps, the unfolding of the catastrophe resulted not only from the sabotage of the TEPCO managers, but also from the design of the TEPCO reactors, which cannot resist the earthquakes and tsunamis, typical for Japan. At the break of the cooling system, even after the shutting down the chain reaction, the decay heat is sufficient to vaporize into the atmosphere all the nuclear fuel. In this sense, the capacities of TEPCO would be sufficient to provide the disaster of rank 8 or 9, making the most of the Honshu island inhabitable, exceeding the damage of Japan during the World War 2 and approaching the scale of disaster described by Sakyo Komatsu in 1976 [8].

After the Chernobyl disaster, the laureate of the Nobel award Andrew Sakharov declared, that the on–ground reactors are dangerous and should be prohibited by the international law [9]. However, up to year 2011, no such a prohibition takes place, and the most of reactors are built at the level of ground (this is most economical solution). The TEPCO reactors are not exception.

Future of TEPCO

The new administration of TEPCO is announced in the summer of 2011 by the TEPCO bulletin [10]. Neither confiscation, not nationalization of TEPCO is planned; the governmental plan by Kan Naoto intents to save TEPCO from the bankruptcy [11].

References

  1. ↑ http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/corpinfo/ir/management/interview-e.html An interview with President. December 14,2010.
  2. ↑ http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/index-e.html Toshio Nishizawa. Letter by President. 2011, June.
  3. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14383832 Japan's parliament approves Tepco compensation plan. 3 August 2011. Tepco, which reported a loss of \(15bn (£9.2bn) earlier this year, may have to pay more than dollaR100bn in compensation. The bill was passed by Japan's parliament with support from both the government and the opposition.
  4. ↑ http://www.lefigaro.fr/societes/2011/05/20/04015-20110520ARTFIG00383-tepco-change-de-pdg-apres-une-perte-due-a-fukushima.php Marine Rabreau. Tepco change de PDG après une perte due à Fukushima. 20/05/2011. La société a fait état d'une perte nette record de 11 milliards d'euros (1250 milliards de yens) ce vendredi matin, soit bien plus que les 9 milliards attendus par la presse japonaise. (in French)
  5. ↑ http://www.pressherald.com/news/leaders-we-could-have-moved-quicker_2011-03-19.html ERIC TALMADGE, MARI YAMAGUCHI. Japanese official: 'We could have moved quicker'. ..The government raised the accident classification for the nuclear crisis from Level 4 to Level 5 on a seven-level international scale. http://www.rferl.org/content/japan_fukushima_chernobyl_disaster_level_raised/3554681.html Japan Raises Severity Rating At Fukushima Disaster To Chornobyl Level. April 12, 2011. Japanese nuclear regulators cited cumulative radiation leaks that have contaminated the air, tap water, vegetables, and seawater as the reason for raising the warning level from 5 to 7
  6. ↑ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704729304576286741965541546.html
    http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11052010-e.html Japan Utility President Stranded as Crisis Began. Wednesday, April 27, 2011 As of 12:00 AM. As president, Masataka Shimizu was supposed to head Tepco's disaster-response team and approve emergency measures, such as the venting of radioactive steam from overheating reactors. Observers have said Mr. Shimizu's absence may have contributed to the company's slowness in making those tough calls during the critical first hours of response.
  7. ↑ http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/21/japan-quake-absent-ceo-idUSL3E7EK0IR20110321 Terril Yue Jones. RPT-Where is Japan's nuclear power CEO? Sun Mar 20, 2011 9:25pm. The head of the Japanese power company at the centre of one of the world's worst nuclear disasters has all but vanished from the public eye. And many Japanese, on a knife edge waiting to see if the nuclear power plant and radiation leaks can be brought under control, are beginning to ask where he is and questioning how much he is in control of the crisis. Masataka Shimizu, chief executive of Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), has not made a public appearance in a week. And he has yet to visit the crippled nuclear power plant north of Tokyo that was badly damaged in the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck on March 11, and where 300 workers are desperately trying to find ways to cool down the reactors. According to the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, he did not even show up at company headquarters until a day after the disaster because he was stranded in the west of the country after trains stopped running.
  8. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Sinks , novel by Sakyo Komatsu.
  9. ↑ http://tori.ils.uec.ac.jp/TORI/index.php/Чернобыльская_тетрадь_1 A.D.Sakcarov. Preface to the "Chernobyl notes" by Grigory Medvedev. (1976, In Russian)
  10. ↑ http://www.webcitation.org/5ypesW1AK Announcement of Changes of Directors. Press Release (May 20,2011). http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-27/tepco-chief-pressured-to-quit-after-costing-holders-26-billion.html Shigeru Sato, James Paton and Yuriy Humber. Tepco Chief Pressured to Quit After Costing Holders \)29 Billion. Mar 28, 2011 4:15 PM GMT+0900.
  11. ↑ http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/japan-to-control-tepco-to-handle-compensation-claims-after-nuclear-disaster/story-e6frf7k6-1226042278008 Japan to control TEPCO to handle compensation claims after nuclear disaster. April 20, 2011 3:27PM .. The envisaged scheme would allow TEPCO to procure funds from the body to cover compensation and repay over a long term, while the company will be obliged to submit a business restructuring plan to the government. The measure differs to nationalisation, under which the government would own more than 50 per cent of the company.</1>
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