Cost of Nuclear Accident Swells

How much is the cost of accident in severe accident in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011? Correct answer is yet determined. Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry calculated that the cost for compensation to the suffers and for cleaning up contaminated land will be ¥23.4 trillion, adding ¥1.9 trillion to the previous estimation. The owner of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company, cannot stand without helps from the government, which means that the taxpayers keep on paying for TEPCO’s historical failure twelve years ago.

This is the third time for the government to review the total cost of the accident. It first estimated that it would be ¥6 trillion in 2011, and changed it to ¥11 trillion in 2013. Then it jumped up to ¥21.5 trillion in 2016, which included ¥13.5 trillion for the compensation and decontamination and ¥8 trillion for decommission of crippled reactors. While the cost for decommission is paid by TEPCO, compensation and decontamination have been made with financial support from the government.

 

METI added ¥1.9 trillion to the latest estimation. Among the additional cost, ¥500 billion will be paid for expansion of recipients, caused by redefinition of compensation in December 2022. Another ¥500 billion will be the compensation for damages on houses around the plant. Strange enough, the government included ¥300 billion as the compensation for the side effects of discharging “processed water” to the ocean. The rest of ¥600 billion will be intermediate storage of radioactive wastes produced in the decontamination process.

 

All of those additional costs will be covered by financial support from the government. The government issues TECO the special governmental bonds, which can be encashed whenever needed. The cost will be included in the budget for FY 2024. The cost for compensation will be reimbursed through contributions from other electric companies in Japan. It is worried that every family all over Japan will suffer from rise of price of electricity.

 

According to a report of Nikkei Shimbun, those additional costs affect reconstruction plan of TEPCO. Although TEPCO has a plan to reimburse ¥500 billion each year and secure ¥450 billion of net income in 2030, the actual reimburse in 2017 or after has been ¥400 billion in average and yielded only ¥110 of net income. Its management is still in jeopardy and it received emergency loan from the banks this April. The cost for the accident can be swollen with recalculation in the future.

 

COP28 of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change agreed on increasing the role of nuclear energy capacity to achieve global net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, as facing difficulty in reaching a common goal among the developed and developing countries. It is the time for the world, however, to take a look at the consequence of an accident of nuclear power plant in a country highly dependent on nuclear energy. Nuclear power is not economically efficient.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amendment of Local Autonomy Law

The House of Representatives started discussion on revision of the Local Autonomy Law, which would vest the national government a power to instruct local government in an emergency. It may change the relationship between the national and local government, which has been recognized as equal. The opposition parties oppose the amendment, arguing that it would give the national government an excessive power.   With the Meiji Restoration, the national government abolished the feudal system, introducing modern governance. However, its autonomy was not sufficient. The governor of each prefecture was appointed by the national government. The local governments subordinated to the national government. It was as late as 2000 when  the Comprehensive Decentralization Law  was enacted and the relationship between the national and local government was defined as equal.   The national government found inconvenience in the relationship between the national and local government, when ...
Read more

Request for Final Nuclear Disposal Site

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry requested Genkai Town, Saga, to accept “literature survey” for building a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste. Genkai is going to answer within this month. If it accepts, it will be the third place to accept that survey, following two places in Hokkaido. Main reason to accept the survey is supposed to be subsidy from the national government.   Japan has no final disposal site. Among all 54 reactors in 17 nuclear power generation plant, 12 reactors of 6 plants are operating. The rest of them are not in operation, some of which are determined to be decommissioned. Used nuclear fuels are stocked in each plant, 　 or have sent to a reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori. There are two plans to stock nuclear wastes in the intermediate facility for disposal, one is already built and another is still in negotiation.   Nuclear Fuel Final Disposal Act in 2000 determines to bury nuclear waste in the underground. Literature survey, ...
Read more

Not A Royal Wedding

The bride called her husband an indispensable existence and their marriage was necessary choice to protect their mind. The groom insisted on his life as only once and his right to be with his loved one. Her father wanted his daughter’s marriage to be celebrated by the people. The people were not sure whether the family was happy as a whole. Is this the traditional Japanese social system that makes no one happy? Mako Komuro, as known as Princess Mako during her life in one of the royal family Akishino, held on Tuesday a press conference with her husband Kei Komuro, right after submitting marriage report to local government. It was something different from ordinary Q&A session, because Mako was afraid of her mental uneasiness brought by some questions not based on truth. So, the event was actually one-sided speech to the reporters. Mako emphasized that the Kei’s decision of studying abroad five years ago had not been his original idea, but a result of her request to establish an over...
Read more