38 years of nuke profit up in smoke?

[kristopher]

38 years of nuke profit up in smoke?
Kyodo

...Kenichi Oshima, an environmental economist and professor at Kyoto-based Ritsumeikan University, estimates that Tepco in that time earned just less than ¥4 trillion, possibly equal to or less than the amount it must pay farmers, fishermen, evacuees and others affected by the nuclear crisis.

Oshima also found that the cost of nuclear power generation is higher in Japan than that of hydraulic and thermal power, contrary to a widely disseminated government estimate.

By analyzing Tepco's financial statements, Oshima put its cumulative profits from its nuclear power business at ¥3.995 trillion between the business years of 1970 and 2007, which ended in March 2008. Tepco operates three nuclear power plants — the six-reactor Fukushima No. 1 plant, four-reactor Fukushima No. 2 plant and seven-reactor Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture.

The amount of damages Tepco needs to pay is not yet known but is expected to reach trillions of yen. Some financial institutions put the figure at ¥8 trillion to ¥11 trillion.

The cost of power generation per kilowatt hour...

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110629a2.html

The numbers used make it appear that the profits from the operation of 17 nuclear reactors over nearly 40 years are about 1/2 to 1/3 of the damages.

Japan has 54 reactors, or about 3X the number studied. Presuming their profits to be similar, that means the meltdowns have wiped out all profitability for the nuclear industry in Japan.

Not going into the incalculable nature of human suffering, I don't believe that the analysis takes into account future decommissioning costs and waste disposal either.