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Japan set for emergency plan to meet power demand
Tokyo (AFP) Aug 21, 2007 Japan's largest power company said Tuesday it is preparing to take emergency measures to address an imminent power shortage due to the suspension of a giant nuclear plant following an earthquake. Temperatures last week hit a record high in Japan. Demand is soaring this week as factories and offices resume operation following summer holidays, adding to the burden caused by air conditioning. Tokyo Electric Power Co.(TEPCO), the world's largest private power company, said it saw the biggest hourly demand yet this summer between 2:00 and 3:00 pm Tuesday. It said it was ready to revive a hydraulic power plant in north of Tokyo under an emergency plan. "We pumped water into the hydraulic plant overnight so that it can be operated immediately if demand is expected to go up beyond our usual energy supply capacity," said TEPCO spokesman Shigeru Kodaira. In another emergency plan, TEPCO can also ask major customers to curb the use of electricity in return for lower bills. At least 60 people, most of them elderly, have died this summer due to the heat wave, according to media tallies. An earthquake last month shut down the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, the world's largest nuclear facility which supplies 10 percent of TEPCO's electricity. Japanese nuclear authorities expect the plant northwest of Tokyo to be offline for about a year for safety checks. A report last week by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency said the plant had no major safety problems. But a group of Japanese seismologists and nuclear experts released a petition Tuesday warning against hastily reopening the plant, saying the checks so far were only initial. "It would be extremely dangerous to restart the plant on the basis of the results of these uncertain calculations," they said in a statement. TEPCO says sustained temperatures of 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) are the highest at which it can provide sufficient electricity. "We are not allowed to be optimistic as demand depends on the weather conditions," Kodaira said. The temperature in Tokyo went as high as 34.2 degrees (93.6 Fahrenheit) Tuesday and rose to 37 degrees (98.6 Fahrenheit) in suburban Saitama prefecture. On Thursday last week, the mercury shot up to 40.9 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit) in two towns, the highest temperatures ever recorded in Japan.
Community
Indian govt grapples with US nuclear deal gridlock
New Delhi (AFP) Aug 21, 2007A nuclear cooperation accord between India and the United States was billed as historic for bringing New Delhi into the nuclear fold and delivering energy security, but it may now threaten the Indian government. |
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