information about Fukushima published in English in Japanese media info publiée en anglais dans la presse japonaise
20 Décembre 2013
December 20, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20131220p2a00m0na007000c.html
The government has decided to expand support for Fukushima Prefecture evacuees to encourage their early return to areas near the damaged Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, it has been learned.
The new plan was drawn up by the government's nuclear disaster response headquarters led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. It comes ahead of the expected lifting of evacuation orders for some areas in spring.
"Our mission is to have the more than 100,000 people who are forced to live as evacuees rebuild their lives as soon as possible," Abe told a meeting of the headquarters.
The plan includes monetary aid for evacuees from areas that are likely to remain off-limits for the foreseeable future, to help them rebuild their lives in other areas. This marks a shift from the government's previous policy of returning all evacuees to their pre-disaster locations.
Around 81,000 evacuees are from areas that are still under evacuation orders. Around 33,000 are from the most lightly contaminated areas where yearly radiation dosages stand below 20 millisieverts, while around 23,000 are from areas hit by mid-level contamination of between 20 and 50 millisieverts per year.
The plan aims to help evacuees from such areas return to their homes in peace of mind when the evacuation orders are lifted. In addition to making Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the owner of the crippled Fukushima plant, pay additional compensation to cover repairs and the rebuilding of damaged homes, the plan would give evacuees who return to their homes early several hundred thousand yen each to compensate for the lack of adequate public infrastructure. The plan would also use money from a fund set up under a supplementary government budget to speed up Fukushima Prefecture's recovery, to help restart agriculture and commercial facilities in the area. To reduce residents' anxiety about their health, radiation exposure would be monitored on an individual basis.
Assistance for residents to live in places other than their original homes will mainly be intended for the approximately 25,000 people from areas where radiation dosages top 50 millisieverts per year, for which evacuation orders are expected to remain in place for many years. TEPCO will be made to compensate these residents for the cost of buying new property and constructing homes, as well as for emotional damage.
Also as part of this assistance, the government plans to set up facilities to help maintain pre-disaster community ties, and it plans to create a way for the government and evacuees to work together to make decisions on radiation decontamination and other community-restoration measures. Although generally intended for evacuees who lived in the most heavily contaminated areas, these support measures may be extended to other evacuees depending on their circumstances.
A government committee in charge of handling disputes over nuclear disaster-related compensation payments is expected to decide on the amounts of compensation on Dec. 26. The government put the plan together based on suggestions presented by the Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner New Komeito in November.
Govt. to boost assistance for Fukushima residents
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20131220_26.html
The Japanese government has compiled new guidelines for financial assistance for people affected by the 2011 nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Cabinet ministers compiled the guidelines at a meeting of the nuclear disaster taskforce on Friday.
Abe said the reconstruction work in Fukushima is essential for Japan's revitalization. He urged the ministers to work with local officials to help rebuild the residents' lives and revitalize the area's economy.
The guidelines include separate measures for residents who plan to return home as their evacuation orders have been lifted and those who can't because the orders are still in effect.
For residents who plan to return home, the government plans to increase the compensation payments for rebuilding or renovating their houses.
But the government says compensation for mental distress will be limited to a period of one year after the evacuation orders are lifted.
For those who can't return home, the government plans to provide additional financial support to purchase homes in new locations. They will receive lump sum compensation for mental distress that they are expected to suffer 6 years after the nuclear accident.
The government also plans to raise the upper limit of its interest-free loans to Tokyo Electric Power Company from the current 5 trillion yen to 9 trillion yen, or about 87 billion dollars.
The measures will continue to be financed by TEPCO and contributions from other nuclear plant operators.
The government also plans to finance the decontamination work with the proceeds from the sale of TEPCO stocks held by the state-backed Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund.
Kyodo
The Abe administration on Friday aired new policies for speeding up recovery from the 2011 Fukushima disaster that include more financial aid for Tokyo Electric Power Co. and more support for nuclear evacuees seeking new lives elsewhere.
Under a new set of guidelines decided Friday, Tepco is to be relieved of paying part of the radiation cleanup costs outside the Fukushima No. 1 power plant but gain additional interest-free loans from a government-backed fund to ensure it can still distribute compensation and shoulder decontamination costs.
The administration drew up the guidelines based on a proposal drafted by the ruling coalition in November. Nearly three years have passed since the crisis began, but 140,000 Fukushima Prefecture residents are still living as nuclear refugees.
“Under existing policies, we have found that there are difficulties for people and local governments in taking new steps toward their future . . . so the state will play a proactive role to accelerate the revitalization of Fukushima,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a meeting of the nuclear disaster task force.
Hoping to lift evacuation orders in areas around the crippled plant next spring, the government said it will support people who plan to promptly return to their homes by offering extra compensation.
But at the same time, it gave up on its goal of getting everyone to return to their homes, pointing to the need to prepare support for those who opt to abandon their tainted homes.
Evacuation orders will be lifted in areas where it is certain that the estimated annual radiation exposure will be 20 millisieverts or lower, and once electricity and other services have been restored and decontamination completed.
Fearing that a lack of funds could affect the recovery, the government also reviewed the financial burdens of Tepco in relation to the compensation payments and off-site decontamination activities.
Tepco will remain responsible for compensating people and companies. It will also be asked to shoulder the costs of off-site decontamination completed or currently planned.
But to make sure that Tepco will not face funding difficulties, the government will lift the ceiling on interest-free loans it is allowed to receive from the Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund to ¥9 trillion from the present ¥5 trillion.
Tepco will have to repay the loans. However, as for decontamination costs, estimated at ¥2.5 trillion so far, the fund will seek to cover them by selling its Tepco shares.
The fund acquired a majority stake in Tepco in return for a ¥1 trillion capital injection last year to keep the utility from folding.
The close to ¥1.1 trillion that will be needed to build and manage interim storage facilities for radioactive waste collected by decontamination work will be footed by taxpayers.
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