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Delays, Confusion as Toshiba Reports $6 Billion Nuclear Hit and Slides To Loss (reuters.com)

Makiko Yamazaki, reporting for Reuters: After a day of delays and confusion, Japan's Toshiba said on Tuesday it expected to book a $6.3 billion hit to its U.S. nuclear unit, a writedown that wipes out its shareholder equity and will drag the group to a full-year loss. Hours earlier on Tuesday, the battered conglomerate rattled investors by failing to release its earnings on schedule, saying initially it was 'not ready' and then announcing later it needed more time to probe its Westinghouse nuclear business after internal reports uncovered potential problems. The figures eventually released were numbers that have yet to be approved by its auditor and Toshiba cautioned investors that a major revision was possible. Fully audited numbers are now not due till March 14 after the firm was granted a reprieve for its formal filing by Japanese regulators. "Finally now people are starting to recognize that internal control problems, the accounting issues and governance issues are very real and no longer abstract," said Zuhair Khan, an analyst at Jefferies in Tokyo. "They impact the viability of the company."

5 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. China and South Korea and Russia can do it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Countries that want to and commit to building nuclear can do it well, on decent schedule and budget. A half ass commitment will fail for any large project, be it nuclear or other.

    1. Re:China and South Korea and Russia can do it by cheesybagel · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Yet nuclear is still subsidizing the renewables in Germany and elsewhere last time I looked at it. Funny uh?

    2. Re:China and South Korea and Russia can do it by darkpixel2k · · Score: 1, Insightful

      No, that's not it. Running overbudget is more of a customer problem and is usually caused by customer changes in the middle of construction.

      Exactly. It's a customer problem. You originally wanted the walls of the control room painted white. We haven't even started building the control room yet, let alone purchased the paint and you are changing the requirement to 'grey'? That'll obviously cost you 1.6 million in additional fees.

      Have you never worked in contracting before?

      Roofers quoted me $2,500 to re-shingle my house two years ago. They started the process, then found 4 sheets of OSB that were slightly water damaged and needed to be replaced. So one of them drove to Home Depot and bought 6 sheets of OSB. Total cost for everything with the 4 sheets of OSB (and the 2 'spares')? $8,700.

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  2. Re:Nuclear: too dangerous, too expensive by mspohr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wind and solar are getting to the point where they'll be cheaper than coal (without subsidies). Nuclear is the most expensive.

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  3. Re:Nuclear: too dangerous, too expensive by higuita · · Score: 1, Insightful

    WTF!
    buidling a nuclear plant is a HUGE investment... true that it have a long life...but you are just another one that thinks that nuclear waste do not cost any money and somebody else problem. For you and anybody that think like this, you and your family (and all future childrends) should move next to a nuclear waste storage and not leave for thousand of years

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    Higuita