Panel Puts Nuclear-Disaster Compensation at Upward of Y3Tln Nikkei

TOKYO (Nikkei)-Compensation for the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster will cost at least Y3 trillion to Y4 trillion, reckons a government-appointed panel looking into Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s (9501.TO) finances, the Nikkei reported in its Tuesday morning edition.

Tepco, as the utility is known, will run out of cash unless it restarts idle reactors at its workhorse Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture or charges more for electricity, according to projections that will be included in the panel's upcoming report.

The compensation estimates assume that the damaged Fukushima reactors are brought to the safe state, known as cold shutdown, early next year and that residents evacuated from the surrounding areas return home next fiscal year.


Delays in reaching these goals would run up the bill, which will also depend on how much of the decontamination costs Tepco is made to bear.

The panel examined nine financial scenarios for the coming decade, based on when the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactors might go back online and how much electric rates might rise.

In its report, which is due out as early as next month, the panel will include three or four of the viable scenarios and put a figure of Y500 billion to Y600 billion on the compensation money to be realized through a companywide overhaul.