by JULIO GODOY
BERLIN, Dec 25, 2011 (IPS) – Several leading European electricity providers and nuclear power plant constructors now count as part of the collateral damage caused by the tsunami that destroyed the Japanese nuclear power plant of Fukushima last March.
In reference to the German government’s decision to phase out nuclear power soon after the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, Johannes Teyssen, CEO of E.ON, one of Germany’s leading electricity providers and power plant operators, warned the public that the industry’s balance sheet would be affected by “extraordinary costs caused by (these) market shifts and regulations.”
Data tabulated by the Free University of Berlin suggests that each of the eight nuclear power plants, had they remained in operation, would have generated a net income of one million euros per day for E.ON and other providers.
Earlier this month E.ON, along with Germany’s three other leading electricity providers RWE, Vatenfall and EnBW announced plans to slash 20,000 jobs, and braced themselves for losses amounting to billions of dollars.
E.ON predicted an unprecedented depreciation of the company’s value by three billion euros (3.9 billion dollars), and said it would be compelled to reduce its worldwide personnel by 11,000 in the coming months.
The three other companies also warned that a further 10,000 jobs would have to be sacrificed in 2012 to make up for operational losses, portending a mass exodus of skilled and semi-skilled labourers from the industry.
The state-owned French company AREVA, a specialist in the construction and management of nuclear power plants as well as a premier operator of uranium mines and nuclear waste facilities, also announced billion-dollar losses and substantial personnel cutbacks.
Back in November AREVA reported losses of up to 1.6 billion euros for 2011 and anticipated losses worth 2.4 billion euros in the coming fiscal year.
Inter Press Service for more