Public burden for Fukushima nuclear disaster tops ¥12 trillion

Over ¥12 trillion had been paid by consumers and taxpayers in Japan by the end of March this year to cover compensation, decontamination, decommissioning and other costs related to the March 2011 triple meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings’ (Tepco) Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, sources said Thursday.

The total burden reached at least ¥12.0659 trillion, according to a tally of nuclear disaster-related spending from the government’s special account for reconstruction from the Fukushima No. 1 plant accident, state aid surveyed by the Board of Audit of Japan, and “general contributions” added to electricity rates set by power suppliers possessing nuclear plants. The general contributions are used as resources for compensation payments to those affected by the serious accident at the plant damaged by a powerful earthquake and tsunami.

This means that each resident in Japan bore about ¥100,000, based on the country’s population of about 122.86 million as of April 1.

The situation suggests that Tepco has been supported by taxpayers and consumers paying electricity bills, including residents of the northeastern prefecture of Fukushima, home to the plant, who were seriously affected by the nuclear disaster. Their burden is expected to continue increasing.

Spending from the special account came to ¥8.72 trillion. Of the sum, ¥3.21 trillion used for decontamination work was paid by the government through Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation, or NDF.

Most of the decontamination costs is planned to be eventually covered with proceeds from the sale of NDF’s holdings of Tepco shares. The loans extended by financial institutions for the purchase of the Tepco shares have been guaranteed by the government, meaning that the shares are effectively under state management.

Compensation payments to people and groups affected by the nuclear accident are also being made by the government through NDF at present and will be eventually covered with the general contributions.

Tepco and other power suppliers have collected at least ¥1.98 trillion in general contributions.

Besides, maintenance costs for facilities to treat radiation-contaminated water at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, outsourcing expenses for compensation-related operations and other costs passed on through Tepco’s electricity rate hikes totaled at least ¥739 billion.

Some projects, such as those for combating contaminated water and work to decommission the nuclear power plant, are directly funded with taxpayer money through the government’s general account. Expenditures on these project reached ¥622.1 billion or more.

The government and Tepco expect the decommissioning work to take 30 to 40 years for completion.