By Osamu Tsukimori and Yuka Obayashi
TOKYO (Reuters) - The operator of the nuclear power plant destroyed in the Fukushima disaster asked the government for help on Wednesday to avoid the risk of the utility going bankrupt over rising costs of addressing the 2011 reactor explosions and meltdowns.
It was not immediately clear what kind of support Tokyo Electric Power Co Holdings Inc is seeking, but officials insisted Japan's biggest utility is not asking for fresh financing.
"We don't want to receive national rescue measures but want to bear the Fukushima responsibility ourselves," Tepco president Naomi Hirose told a government panel, according the panel chief, Kunio Ito.
"For that reason, we would like to undertake steps for a further overhaul than we have had so far," Hirose was quoted as saying.
The Fukushima Daiichi reactors melted down following an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. Dismantling the reactors is expected to take about 40 years, but even five and a half years on, Tepco still struggles to contain radioactive water from the plant and has said it can't predict the eventual costs of clean-up and decommissioning.
After the panel meeting on Tepco reform and the Fukushima Daiichi plant, Hirose told reporters that it is difficult to accurately predict the costs of even a gradual decommissioning of the crippled reactors, said a spokeswoman for the utility, which generates about a third of the country's electricity.
"If the issue of recognising all the estimated losses at once were to emerge, our company would fail, so we would like some structural assistance from the government to be able to avoid that risk," Hirose said.
The Mainichi daily reported on Wednesday that Japan's utilities lobby expects clean-up and compensation costs from the Fukushima disaster to overshoot previous estimates by 8.1 trillion yen (62.13 billion pounds) beyond an initial estimate 7.9 trillion yen.
The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan has informally asked the government to shoulder the extra cost, the newspaper said. A federation spokesman said the group has not asked the government to shoulder any extra costs of compensation and clean-up, and that the Mainichi estimates were not correct.
The new government panel also agreed that management reform at Tepco was necessary at its first meeting earlier in the day, panel chief Ito said.
Shares in Tepco ended down 3.3 percent after falling as much as 7.9 percent on Hirose's remarks, which were initially interpreted as a plea for additional financial aid.
