By Megumi Yamanaka and Michio Nakayama
April 13 (Bloomberg) -- The restart of a Tokyo Electric Power Co. plant has been further delayed while it ensures safety after a fire, the ninth since the world’s biggest nuclear station was shut by an earthquake in 2007.
The trade ministry ordered Asia’s biggest utility to probe the cause of the blaze at a warehouse at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa station on April 11 and prevent a recurrence. The government of Kashiwazaki city in Japan’s northwest, where the plant is located, also ordered the company to review fire safety.
The directives come as Tokyo Electric awaits a decision from local governments on whether one of the plant’s seven reactors is safe to operate, paving the way for a restart. The governor of Niigata prefecture, Hirohiko Izumida, said today he may defer a local assembly meeting scheduled for April 21 to discuss the matter because of the blaze.
“A delay would shake the consensus among investors that a restart is going to happen soon,” said Hirofumi Kawachi, an energy analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities Co. in Tokyo. “I’m positive that Tokyo Electric can avoid going into the red this fiscal year, but profit would be lower than expected.”
The utility posted a loss for the first time in 28 years for the year ended March 2008 after the shutdown forced it to buy more oil, coal and natural gas at peak prices to fuel thermal plants. Analysts have projected a return to profit in the year started April, according to five estimates in a January Bloomberg survey.
Shares Fall
Shares in the utility fell 0.6 percent to 2,385 yen in Tokyo at 2:22 p.m. They have lost 10 percent in the past year, compared with a 32 percent drop in the benchmark Topix index.
The central government’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has approved structural strengthening work done to the No. 7 reactor, and local approval was the final requirement before a restart. The 1,356-megawatt unit is the first to have undergone repairs after the earthquake in July 2007 shook the station more than was assumed possible in its design.
The mayors of Kariwa village and Kashiwazaki city both said they were satisfied with safety at a meeting with Izumida on April 10. Izumida said he would postpone a decision pending a discussion by the assembly.
“The fire is adversely impacting the talks we are having now regarding the restart,” Takeshi Kumakura of Niigata’s nuclear safety division said by phone.
The local fire department ordered Tokyo Electric to improve safety at the plant last month after a fire broke out when workers were cleaning a pump at the No. 1 reactor building.
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