Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the world's largest nuclear plant which was hit by an earthquake last year, said Wednesday it expected much wider losses this year as inspections continue.
A powerful quake in July caused a slew of problems at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in central Japan, including a fire and a small radiation leak.
While no one was hurt, the plant supplying the Tokyo region remains shut down and a team of UN inspectors are this week carrying out a new round of checks.
Tokyo Electric, or TEPCO, now expects to post net losses of 155 billion yen (1.45 billion dollars) in the year to March, nearly two-thirds larger than the initially forecast 95 billion yen, a statement said.
In the previous year, the world's largest private electricity company enjoyed net profit of 298.15 billion yen.
TEPCO said it also slipped into the red for the fiscal third quarter due to the shutdown of the plant, which required the company to buy power elsewhere to meet demand.
It said it registered a net loss of 30 billion yen in the three months to December, compared with 254.8 billion yen net profit in the same period of 2006.
The net loss came despite a 3.3 percent rise in revenue as companies revved up production in the recovering economy and due to higher revenue from air conditioning in the wake of an unusually hot summer.
