Cash-strapped TEPCO backs out of Vietnam nuclear project

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) has announced that it will pull back from the nuclear power plant in Vietnam to focus on overhauling its tsunami-crippled Fukushima after the atomic disaster in March 2011, according to Vietnam news sources.

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

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.

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

In the year to March, TEPCO was expected to post a net loss of USD8.95 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.