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Energy-starved Japan faces massive blackout

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/asia/story/0,4386,163382,00.html?

TOKYO - Japan could face an unprecedented blackout if nuclear plants, which suspended operations following an atomic cover-up scandal, remain closed next year, experts said.

Fears of a power shortage have triggered a rare campaign to save energy.

In a bid to weather a winter peak in electricity use, the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) launched a historic emergency campaign earlier this month, unseen since the country's 1973 oil crisis.

The world's largest private electric power company will ask 10,000 corporate clients to save electricity by lowering temperatures in heating systems and switching power off in unused rooms.

'Our biggest concern is a serious cold spell, which would make demand for electricity shoot up,' said Mr Toru Ueno, a Tepco spokesman.

'But we are still confident we can avoid a large blackout and overcome the winter peak in electricity demand, which usually lasts until March.'

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration has ordered all ministry and government agencies to conserve electricity, while the Energy Agency will mount banners on its buildings asking for public cooperation in energy-saving.

Tepco said earlier this month it would consecutively suspend power generation at its 17 nuclear reactors for emergency inspections after admitting to falsifying safety records at nuclear plants since the late 1980s.

Former president Nobuya Minami resigned in September over the scandal and Tepco carried out an in-house investigation in efforts to regain trust from residents living near nuclear power facilities.

The firm, which has already stopped operating nine reactors, aims to use other types of power generators to make up for the drop in nuclear output, which accounts for 44 per cent of its total supply.

Despite its efforts, Tepco's electricity surplus has trickled away and is expected by March to taper off completely if the suspension of operations at nuclear reactors continues.

'We forecast Tepco will barely manage to survive this winter if there is no accident,' said Mr Hiroyuki Sakaida, utilities sector analyst at Lehman Brothers.

'But a real problem may come in the summer.

'If full suspension of nuclear reactors continues until summer, Tokyo will experience an unprecedented blackout for sure. Electricity in Tokyo is fully dependent upon how swiftly the firm can finish inspections.'

Irrespective of the continued troubles with Tepco's nuclear reactors, the government is still heavily dependent on them because of what they say is Japan's lack of natural resources.

The nation's last nuclear disaster was in 1999 when two people were killed and 400 others exposed to radiation in a uranium processing accident in Tokaimura, north-east of Tokyo.

It was the world's worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl crisis in 1986. --AFP