An extra $4.85 billion and more power shortages

Having already set the price tag at 1.3 trillion yen this fiscal year, Japan’s Kansai Electric Power Co. has estimated the total costs to fill the gap left by nuclear reactors shut for safety checks will exceed 1.7 trillion yen by March 2013. These figures are according to a presentation on the company’s website and covered by Bloomberg.

All but two of Japan’s 54 reactors remain dormant despite successful ‘stress tests’ as the government has said it won’t approve the restart of reactors unless local authorities agree. An article in the Financial Times, which I covered in this blog a few weeks ago, suggests that local agreement is in many cases tied up with political horse-trading between local and national politicians.

In the meantime, the country continues to lose money and, according to Kansai Electric estimates, home owners and businesses alike can look forward to 41 days of power shortages between July and September of this year. A situation which could well exert more press on local authorities to give their agreement.

My opinion on the situation remains unchanged. It is simply a matter of time before reactors are restarted.

Dev Randhawa