TEPCO withdraws from Vietnam nuclear project

July 02, 2012 | 09:35

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Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) has recently announced its decision to pull back from the nuclear power plant in Vietnam to focus on overhauling its tsunami-crippled Fukushima after the atomic disaster in March 2011.

Pham Minh Tuan, head of the nuclear power department under the Electricity Group of Vietnam (EVN), confirmed with Tuoi Tre that he has obtained the information via the media.

Tuan also informed that TEPCO, the operator of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, is only one of the businesses in the joint venture with the Japan International Nuclear Energy Development Company (JINED).

The joint-venture was assigned by the Japanese government to work with the Vietnamese side to promote the construction of the Nuclear Power Plant 2 in the coastal province of Ninh Thuan.

“Neither TEPCO nor JINED has been chosen as the official nuclear power technology supplier for Vietnam,” said Tuan. “The withdrawal of TEPCO does not affect the project progress.”

In July 2011, TEPCO also withdrew from a planned nuclear power plant project in Turkey for a similar reason.

"We plan to withdraw from operations except for those that are essential to the power business," a TEPCO spokesman was quoted by Reuters as saying.

In the year to March, TEPCO was expected to post a net loss of $8.95 billion, according to an AFP report.

The shortfall came from the massive costs it had to spend to deal with reactor meltdowns, increased imports of fossil fuels, the projected compensation payouts to those affected by the Fukushima disaster - the world's worst atomic in a generation, AFP said.