Japan nuclear power companies to form four-way alliance: Nikkei

(Reuters) - Four major Japanese utility and engineering companies entered an alliance to combine all their nuclear operations under a combined company, Japan's Nikkei business daily said on Wednesday.

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc (TEPCO) , Hitachi Ltd , Toshiba and Chubu Electric Power Co Inc have entered negotiations into the possibility of jointly decommissioning obsolete reactors, Nikkei said. (https://s.nikkei.com/2nUx6DI)

None of the companies were available for comment, outside market hours.

The move comes seven years after the Fukushima disaster that resulted in a devastating meltdown at TEPCO's nuclear power station. The disaster spurred new safety standards which raised safety-related costs.

TEPCO has 11 boiling-water reactors, while Chubu Electric has five currently offline since the disaster, with a number of them unlikely to get official approval to restart, the newspaper added.

(Reporting by Nikhil Kurian Nainan in Bengaluru; Editing by James Dalgleish)