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information about Fukushima published in English in Japanese media info publiée en anglais dans la presse japonaise

Cleanup bill to double original estimate

December 9, 2016

Fukushima nuclear disaster bill to double to 21.5 trillion yen

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201612090075.html

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Total costs to resolve the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster will reach 21.5 trillion yen (about $188 billion), nearly double the previous estimate, which will be passed on to users in higher electricity bills.

The industry ministry said on Dec. 9 that the final tab for the accident at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is estimated to balloon from the 11 trillion yen calculated in 2013.

To prevent the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., from going bankrupt under the skyrocketing costs for decommissioning, compensation and decontamination, the government said it will increase the maximum amount of its zero-interest loans to the utility from the current 9 trillion yen to 13.5 trillion yen.

Much of the additional costs will be eventually covered by the public, as the government plans to raise electricity charges to that end.

Within the total, compensation paid to people affected by the nuclear accident will increase from 5.4 trillion yen to 7.9 trillion yen. Bills for decontaminating areas polluted with radioactive substances will rise from 2.5 trillion yen to 4 trillion yen.

The rise in compensation costs is mainly attributable to a new support measure adopted for people in the agricultural and forestry sectors who cannot restart their work due to restrictions on the shipments of their products.

The increase in decontamination costs was mainly led by the rise in prices of bags to hold contaminated materials and the larger-than-expected personnel costs of decontamination workers.

The compensation costs will be temporarily covered by the government. But TEPCO will eventually shoulder most of the burden, in principle, spending many years paying it off.

Other major utilities and newly established electric power companies will also contribute in the form of a rise in electric power cable usage fees.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry also unveiled plans to increase TEPCO’s revenues to decrease the burden on the public.

The plan calls for TEPCO to increase its annual profits from the current 400 billion yen to 500 billion yen by cutting costs in the field of electricity transmission and distribution. It also expects an additional 100 billion yen through restarting the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture.

 

 

Fukushima cleanup to cost 21.5 trillion yen, double original estimate

http://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20161209/p2a/00m/0na/009000c

 

The cost of dealing with the aftermath of the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant will reach 21.5 trillion yen, roughly double the government's initial prediction of 11 trillion yen, preliminary calculations released on Dec. 8 by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry have shown.

The government plans to have new electricity suppliers and major utilities including the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), tack a portion of the additional costs onto power bills.

The ministry calculated that the cost of compensating people affected by the disaster would rise from 5.4 trillion yen to 7.9 trillion yen. The cost associated with decontamination and the construction of interim storage facilities for radioactive waste, meanwhile, was expected to rise from 3.6 trillion yen to 5.6 trillion yen. The ministry estimated that TEPCO would end up paying around 8 trillion yen to decommission the plant's reactors, up from an initial estimate of 2 trillion yen.

TEPCO and other major power companies are covering the cost of compensation payments but the ministry plans to make new power producers and suppliers also pay some compensation. A ministry representative explained, "Customers of power producers and suppliers that have newly entered the market used power from major utilities in the past, and benefitted from nuclear power plants."

Over a 40-year period beginning in 2020, new power producers and suppliers are set to add part of the additional costs of compensation payments to "wheeling charges" that they pay to use the lines of major power suppliers such as TEPCO, which will be passed onto power bills. However, new power producers and consumer groups say this runs counter to the aims of liberalization of the power market, which aims to stimulate the market with the entry of newcomers.

The ministry hopes to quieten resistance from market newcomers by having major utilities furnish them with relatively cheap power through the market, including nuclear and hydro power. Major utilities, however, are unhappy with this approach.

The cost of decommissioning the reactors at the Fukushima plant will be left in TEPCO's hands. A system will be created to have the Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corp. collect profits that TEPCO acquires through streamlining of its management, which will be paid out under government supervision.

At this stage, however, the method of decommissioning the reactors at TEPCO's Fukushima No. 1 plant has yet to be established.

"It is difficult to accurately calculate at this stage how much it will cost to decommission the reactors," a ministry representative commented. There are accordingly fears that the decommissioning cost could rise in the future.

The government plans to extend the amount of compensation bonds loaned to TEPCO from the current 9 trillion yen to 14 trillion yen. It is possible that this could lead to an increased burden on the public in the future.

 

 

Panel says Fukushima power plant’s cleanup fees are now almost double the 2013 estimate

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/12/09/national/panel-says-fukushima-power-plants-cleanup-fees-now-almost-double-2013-estimate/#.WEqgtH2Dmos

 

Kyodo

 

The combined cleanup costs for the 2011 nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 plant have nearly doubled the figure estimated in 2013, reaching ¥21.5 trillion, a government panel said Friday.

The panel said it appears inevitable that Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. will have to ask customers to shoulder part of the costs, including compensation for affected people, outlays for decommissioning, and cleanup of areas contaminated with radioactive substances released from the plant.

To help the company secure money to cover ballooning expenses, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said it is planning to raise the maximum amount of government bond issuance for the utility to ¥13.5 trillion from the current ¥9 trillion.

The panel raised its estimate for decommissioning fees to ¥8 trillion from the previous ¥2 trillion, for compensation to ¥7.9 trillion from ¥5.4 trillion and for decontamination costs to ¥4 trillion from ¥2.5 trillion. It also increased fees related to temporary storage facilities for soil contaminated with radioactive substances and other waste to ¥1.6 trillion from ¥1.1 trillion.

Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko said at a news conference, “The costs could increase depending on the situation but could also drop in line with technological innovations in decommissioning work.”

The panel suggested that operations related to the Fukushima plant effectively stay under state control before reviewing the status in 2019.

The panel meeting, which began in early October, has also agreed on the need to seek cooperation from other power companies in reactivating Tepco’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata Prefecture, the world’s largest nuclear plant by generation capacity, which will be a main source of its revenue.

 

 

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