The company responsible for the Fukushima nuclear plant is to seek bids to expand its thermal-generating capacity after three years of its nuclear reactors sitting idle.
Japanese utility firm Tepco will ask for bids to provide 6 gigawatts of capacity – the equivalent of six nuclear reactors – as part of its plan to replacing aging thermal plants and cut £1billion in fuel costs,
The firm, which did not specify which fuels would be used by the plants, currently has a thermal capacity of 41GW.
All of Japan’s reactors remain idled for safety checks after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami led to the meltdown of three reactors at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant.
About 160,000 people were forced to evacuate because of radiation fallout, leaving Tepco with billions of dollars in compensation and cleanup expenses.
Company officials have indicated in recent months they face further delays in restarting two reactors at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, the world’s biggest, because of safety checks.
The utility had anticipated switching the reactors back on as early as July as part of the recovery plan. Restarting one of the reactors would cut Tepco’s annual fuel costs by about 78 billion yen, the company has said.
Nuclear plants produced more than 25 percent of Japan’s electricity before the disaster, meaning it’s had to switch fossil fuel plants to make up the difference, with the import costs for those fuels pushing Japan into a trade deficit for 20 straight months.
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