Fukushima Operator TEPCO Rakes in $4.6B Profit

Melissa Melton
Activist Post

Fresh reports including that even more children exposed to Fukushima radiation are now suffering from thyroid cancer these days and radioactive cesium levels have tripled in Oregon tuna fish have not stopped the majority Japanese-government owned Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) from turning a huge profit:

The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has booked a US$4.3 billion (AU$4.65 billion) annual net profit owing to an electricity rate hike and a massive government bailout following the 2011 disaster.

Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) was teetering on the brink as clean-up and compensation costs stoked huge losses and threatened to collapse the sprawling utility until Tokyo stepped with a multi-billion dollar rescue.

The company at the centre of the worst nuclear accident in a generation said it earned 438.65 billion yen (US$4.3 billion) in the fiscal year to March, compared with a net loss of 685.3 billion yen in the same period a year earlier.

Sales rose 11.0 percent to 6.63 trillion yen, it said.

The company’s results got a boost from a rate hike, and helped offset a decline in the amount of electricity TEPCO sold owing to warmer-than-usual winter weather, it said.

It also booked a special gain of 1.8 trillion yen based on funds the company received from a government-backed bailout fund as well as asset sales. (source)

So while TEPCO cleanup workers have come forward to expose the unbelievably cheap and shoddy cleanup practices going on over at the Daiichi nuclear power station —

Uechi was given a task to cover five or six storage tanks without lids in the “E” area close to H3 as it was raining, the Japanese paper reported. When he climbed to the top of the 10-meter-high tank Uechi found white adhesive tape covering an opening of about 30 centimeters. After using a blade to remove the tape he applied a sealing agent on the opening and fit a steel lid fastening it with bolts. According to instructions he was to use four bolts, though the lid had eight bolt holes.

According to the employee, his colleagues later told him that the use of adhesive tape was a usual practice to deal with the problem of sealing in radioactive water.

“I couldn’t believe that such slipshod work was being done, even if it was part of stopgap measures,” Uechi told The Asahi Shimbun.

Among other makeshift cost-cutting measures was the use of second-hand materials. [emphasis added] (source)

— and years later, local Fukushima families continue to flee from the dangerous radiation still spewing daily from the wrecked power plant —

This is why Yukie Hashimoto and her husband decided to send their 12-year-old daughter 200 miles away to a resort town in central Japan… And the Hashimotos aren’t alone. The families of at least seven other children near Fukushima have reportedly decided to do the same thing to protect their children from long-term harm. (source)

— and former Japanese mayors are warning people that radiation levels near Fukushima are now four times higher than they were near Chernobyl after that disaster happened —

“It is by no means safe, no matter what the government says,” [Katsutaka Idogawa, former mayor of Futaba] is quoted saying to RT.com. (source)

— TEPCO is busy taking huge government bailouts, hiking rates, and just raking in the big bucks hand over fist.

Melissa Melton is a writer, researcher, and analyst for The Daily Sheeple, where this first appeared, and a co-creator of Truthstream Media. Wake the flock up!