NEW YORK - Tokyo Electric known as Tepco saw its stock traded today after it was halted yesterday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano had said that the country was not currently considering the nationalization of the utility company; "at this point, it is my understanding that government institutions are not considering such a move. The government will be directing TEPCO to do this everything possible, to resolve this situation and those who are affected." Tepco's Spokesman Hajime Motojuku said "Our first and biggest priority at this moment is to prevent the nuclear power plant accident from worsening further,"
The company is still looking to contain radiation at its troubled Fukushima Daiichi plant which supplied approximately 7% of the company's total electric power before the earthquake and tsunami on March 11. It is still unsure what the liability will be for the company relating to the disaster.
According to Japanese law a company is not held responsible only if the disaster occurred due to a "exceptional natural disaster." The Japanese government has not yet called the incident exceptional and it has never before called an incident exceptional. However if the largest recorded earthquake in Japanese history is unexceptional then what is?
The stock is currently down a further 12% in early trading in Japan to ¥498 . Since the disaster the company has lost nearly 77% of its market value or ¥2.6 trillion.
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