Japan to Fund Fukushima Decontamination With Tepco Sale

[bananas]

Source: Bloomberg

Japan’s government will assume decontamination costs from the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns via the sale of its shares in Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501), the operator of the wrecked plant, while the utility will be responsible for compensation claims arising from the disaster.

The plan by the government’s Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters puts a cap on the utility’s costs related to the disaster, which gives clarity to potential investors, Nomura Holdings Inc. said earlier this week. The company also plans to set up a separate unit to decommission the wrecked plant so it can get back to its business of generating electricity.

Decontamination costs near the Fukushima site 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Tokyo are estimated at about 2.5 trillion yen ($24 billion), the NERH said in a statement today. The aim is to recover the costs through a sale of Tokyo Electric shares held by the government’s fund, it said.

“We aim to minimize the burden of citizens by enhancing the value of the company,” Trade Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told reporters today in Tokyo. The government support “is not intended to bail out Tepco, but promote revival of Fukushima along with the company,” he said.

The cost of an interim storage facility for radioactive soil near Fukushima is estimated at about 1.1 trillion yen, the statement said. Additionally, the government will raise the ceiling on loans to Tokyo-based Tokyo Electric, also known as Tepco, to 9 trillion yen from 5 trillion yen, the statement said.

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Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-20/japan-to-fund-fukushima-decontamination-with-tepco-share-sale.html

[L0oniX]

1. Sell it to Iran.

[bananas]

2. Related: Cynical US's hidden agenda in offer to help Japan with Fukushima

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/nuclear-reaction/cynical-uss-hidden-agenda-in-offer-to-help-ja/blog/47246/

Cynical US's hidden agenda in offer to help Japan with Fukushima
Blogpost by Dr. Rianne Teule - November 5, 2013

The US has “kindly offered” to help Japan with the decommissioning of the Fukushima reactors and the problems with the ongoing leakages of radioactively contaminated water.

Is the US being the good Samaritan? Unfortunately not. Before the US will provide assistance, Japan has to sign the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC). This is an international treaty that supposedly provides an international regime on nuclear liability -- the who-should-pay-for-a-nuclear-accident issue.

But the real aim of the CSC, along with other international conventions on nuclear liability, is to protect the nuclear industry. It caps the total compensation available after a nuclear accident at a level much lower than the actual costs. The companies that supply nuclear reactors and other material are exempt, they don't have to pay anything if there is an accident. The operators of nuclear plants are the only ones accountable for paying damages but the CSC protects them too by not requiring them to have enough money or financial security to cover the costs of an accident.

<snip>

The Japanese government’s plan to break up TEPCO and take direct control of the Fukushima clean-up means that taxpayers once again would have to open their wallets. Even though TEPCO by law is required to cover all the costs of the decontamination, it simply refuses to pay and the Japanese government lets them get away with it.

And now the US is blackmailing Japan into signing the international treaty that protects American companies. “You need help to solve your radioactive water problems? We can help you! Please sign on the dotted line…”

The US is not offering help to Japan out of the kindness of its heart, but to give a lifeline to its dying nuclear business. The US has been pushing ratification of the CSC in other countries where they hope to expand their nuclear business, such as India, Canada, Korea.

Japan signing the CSC would have two important benefits for the US: 1. It would reduce the chances that GE can be sued for damages from the Fukushima accident, and 2. It could secure future business opportunities in Japan for American nuclear suppliers.

<snip>

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. TEPCO doing what BP did.

Essentially a gov. bailout.

Remember when BP set up a fund for compensation, and then strung out the compensation process to the point
where lots of people got nothing, but the guy running the program got rich?
And then BP did not spend all of the fund?
Meanwhile, BP continues to get drilling permits and make money and make its investors happy happy.

In the case of Fukishima, only the gov. is big enough to handle the problem, but it ought to be nationalizing TEPCO, not helping the company reduce losses.

I predict TEPCO will now raise electric prices, claiming it needs money for the compensation fund.

[hunter]

4. Brilliant! Apply the magic powers of the "free market" to clean up the mess it made...

[Dopers_Greed]

5. That's it?!!!!

No prison time for the execs?

F U Free market.

[Kelvin Mace]

6. Translation

Tax payers will bail out shareholders.