TEPCO stock surges on rescue plan

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant is owned by TEPCO.Government rescue plan fuels power company's reboundTokyo Electric Power Co. stock gains 32%Tokyo Electric shares added 80 yen to close at 329 yen

(CNN) -- Japan's beleaguered Tokyo Electric Power Co. received some rare good financial news Wednesday as its stock soared 32% after the government approved a rescue plan a day earlier.

TEPCO shares added 80 yen to close at 329 yen.

Speculators were in a buying mood after Japan's government approved the rescue plan for the owner of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant. The plan also must be approved by the Japanese parliament.

The plant was damaged during the March 11 earthquake and resulting tsunami.

The electricity and gas sector led overall gains in Tokyo's market.

Overall, Tokyo stocks rose Wednesday, after a smaller-than-expected fall in May US retail sales data, as investors' concerns eased over a slowdown in the world's largest economy.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average advanced nearly a third of point Wednesday, while the broader Topix was up 0.22% to 825.65.

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IAEA criticizes Japan's Tepco for underestimating tsunami threat (The Christian Science Monitor)

Tokyo – Japan’s nuclear power industry is under pressure to improve safety after international inspectors criticized the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant operators.

In a preliminary report issued Wednesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) had underestimated the tsunami hazard, despite warnings that a huge wave could breach the plant’s 5.7-meter protective wall.

The waves that crashed into the nuclear power complex following the March 11 magnitude-9.0 earthquake were more than 50 feet tall.

RELATED: Japan earthquake: 5 ways the international community is helping

The 18-member team, led by Britain’s chief nuclear safety official Mike Weightman, backed Tepco’s claims that the damage had been inflicted by the tsunami, not the earthquake that preceded it as some reports had suggested earlier.

“In terms of the cause it is clear – the direct cause was a tsunami, associated with an earthquake, of tremendous size,” Mr. Weightman told reporters in Tokyo.

Japan’s nuclear power industry, reeling from the Fukushima accident and a loss of public and government enthusiasm for new nuclear plants, will find it difficult to ignore the IAEA’s findings. Inspectors called for the nuclear industry to take a more active role in prevention of such disasters going forward: “Nuclear plant designers and operators should appropriately evaluate and provide protection against the risks of all natural hazards.”

Unless operators can convince regulators and host communities that their facilities are safe, the country’s 54 reactors could be subject to temporary closure while safety improvements are made, severely crimping power to the country.

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With only 19 reactors currently in operation in the country, experts speculate that, in a worst-case scenario, all reactors could be offline by the middle of 2012. That would deprive Japan of 30 percent of its electricity generation and result in forced power cuts over the long term.

'Constructive suggestions'Crucially, the inspectors called for Japan’s regulatory body to be independent of the government. The current regulator is attached to a ministry that promotes the nuclear power industry.

''[The government] needs to make sure that not only are they independent in structure, but also independent in the resources, the expertise that they have available to them,a€

Goshi Hosono, the director of the government's nuclear crisis task force, told reporters: ''The IAEA is aware that [Japanese] regulatory authorities, including the nuclear safety agency and the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan, were not necessarily in the best shape and the current government also has such a view. So I think reorganization is inevitable.”

Tempered criticism The IAEA report produced few new revelations, and its criticism of tsunami defenses was tempered by praise for the emergency efforts to cool the three Fukushima reactors that suffered meltdowns in the hours after the disaster.

It said: “The response on the site by dedicated, determined and expert staff, under extremely arduous conditions has been exemplary and resulted in the best approach to securing safety given the exceptional circumstances.”

Weightman said the team, which will present its findings to the IAEA in Vienna later this month, had been granted access to nuclear sites and received the full cooperation of Tepco and nuclear safety officials.

The inspectors described the evacuation and attempts to protect the public as “impressive and extremely well organized,” adding that a “suitable and timely follow-up program on public and worker exposures, and health monitoring would be beneficial.”

But Shaun Burnie, nuclear adviser to Greenpeace Germany, dismissed the IAEA report as a whitewash.

“It is clear that Tepco knew about the melting of unit 1 within the first 16 hours of the earthquake at the time, but did not release that information for two months,” he told the Monitor. “This had consequences for emergency services and evacuations, yet the IAEA ignored this.

“This, and so much more, was ignored and covered up by the IAEA. We had no confidence in the IAEA fact-finding mission before, and this confirms our position.”

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Japan's TEPCO reports massive losses

TEPCO vice president Sakae Muto bows on May 17 prior to the release of a revised timetable for stabilizing the Fukushima plant.Tokyo Electric says it will decommission four reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plantThe company president and vice president announce their resignationsTokyo Electric hopes to save more than a trillion yen by cutting payroll and salaries, and selling real estateA March 11 earthquake and tsunami crippled the plant

Tokyo (CNN) -- Hammered by a nuclear accident at its Fukushima Daiichi power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Friday reported a net loss of 1.2 trillion yen ($15.4 billion) for the fiscal year that ended March 31.

Tokyo Electric also announced it will decommission reactors Nos. 1-4 at Fukushima Daiichi. It also has canceled plans to build two other reactors at the site.

In addition to the company's earnings, Tokyo Electric president Masataka Shimizu announced his resignation Friday, which must be approved by the board of directors at a June meeting.

"The accident compromised our confidence in the safety of nuclear power," Shimizu said. "We have caused problems and anxiety to the public."

Managing Director Toshio Nishizawa has been tapped to replace the president.

"We are facing the gravest crisis in the history of the company," Nishizawa said. "I feel the enormous gravity of the responsibility to assume the position of the president ... so I accepted the position."

Vice Presidents Sakae Mutoh and Makio Fujiwara also tendered their resignations, as did Director Tomijirou Morita.

A restructuring plan was announced to boost company finances and help create more than a trillion yen in savings by selling off real estate, cutting pay and reducing staff.

The Fukushima Daiichi plant has faced a series of setbacks since a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11. The disasters triggered a glitch in the plant's cooling system, and caused radiation to leak.

As crews work to bring the problems under control, the government said this week it would compensate more than 78,000 displaced by the nuclear disaster.

Tokyo Electric has made a down payment on compensation of 1 million yen (about $12,000) per household to some families.

Some analysts say total compensation could amount to more than 10 trillion yen ($124 billion).

The government has set no ceiling on the compensation and Tokyo Electric will be required to pay back the money spent out of a government-backed fund.

The shadow cast by Fukushima Daiichi has inflicted yet-unknown losses on farmers, fishermen and shopkeepers. And looming compensation costs have darkened the future of Tokyo Electric, a $157 billion company that could still be driven into some form of government receivership by the nuclear disaster.

CNN's Kyung Lah and Yoko Wakatsuki contributed to this report

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