The
ruling Liberal Democratic Party has thrashed out plans to deal with
the consequences of the Fukushima nuclear disaster and take care of
affected areas, but many questions remain unanswered.
The
most important feature of the LDP proposal calls for using money in
state coffers to finance future decontamination work and the
construction of interim storage facilities for contaminated soil and
other radioactive materials.
The
Abe administration is set to take responsibility for meeting this
formidable challenge.
DON’T
USE TAXPAYER MONEY TO BAIL OUT TEPCO
In
our editorials, we have consistently pointed out that Tokyo Electric
Power Co., the operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power
plant, cannot be expected to fully bear the costs of cleaning up the
mess. Public funds will have to be used.
But
the government’s financial commitment is not sufficient to ensure
that the work to decommission the reactors at the plant will go
smoothly. We cannot be optimistic, especially considering how the
government has been responding to the leaks of contaminated water at
the plant on an ad hoc basis.
The
government should unveil, as soon as possible, a clear and convincing
road map toward phasing out nuclear power generation, showing details
about systems and procedures for decommissioning all nuclear reactors
in Japan. This is vital for making sure that taxpayer money will not
be used simply for bailing out TEPCO.
Under
the LDP’s proposals, TEPCO will pay for the cost of decontamination
work that has been done so far, estimated at between 1.3 trillion yen
($13.2 billion) and 1.5 trillion yen. The government will bear the
cost of future decontamination work. The utility has also agreed to
use its own money to pay compensation to victims.
The
Fukushima meltdowns were a man-made disaster. The primary blame
should be placed on TEPCO, which failed to implement the appropriate
safety investments to make the plant less vulnerable to natural
disasters. From this point of view, there is a compelling case for
requiring the utility to bear all the costs of dealing with the
consequences of the accident triggered by the 2011 Great East Japan
Earthquake and tsunami.
But
the amount needed to pay compensation, decontaminate polluted areas
and decommission the reactors is simply too huge--more than 10
trillion yen according to one estimate--for a single company to
cover. If TEPCO is required to pick up the entire tab, the utility
could be tempted to take a reckless approach to its business
operations in a bid to secure profits. By that, we mean that it must
not cut corners on the issue of paying adequate compensation to
victims and making the necessary capital investment for stable
electricity supply.
TEPCO
recently reported its first half-year profit since the accident
flared. But the black ink figure is a product of accounting gimmicks
to prevent compensation expenses from depressing the bottom line. The
company also went to considerable lengths to put off booking repair
expenses. The earnings results were engineered through creative
accounting, so to speak.
TEPCO
is eager to restart the idled reactors at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa
nuclear plant in Niigata Prefecture, even though it is still
struggling with the Fukushima cleanup. That is because it is under
strong pressure to notch up profits.
If
TEPCO bears all the cleanup costs, the money will have to come from
higher electricity charges imposed on consumers in the Tokyo
metropolitan area, which the utility serves.
The
government is also partly responsible for the Fukushima accident
because it has promoted nuclear power generation as a national policy
and failed to tighten lax nuclear safety regulations.
For
these reasons, we have been calling on the government to use tax
money to deal with the consequences of the nuclear disaster.
LAY
OUT A NUCLEAR-FREE FUTURE
But
there are certain conditions that must be met before using the tax
money.
For
one thing, it must be made clear that TEPCO is effectively bankrupt.
That is the only way to minimize the financial burden on taxpayers.
Under
current law, there are some potential problems with TEPCO filing for
bankruptcy, which requires that priority be placed on paying back the
huge amount of debt the company owes to investors who bought its
corporate bonds. That means financial relief to victims could be put
on the back burner.
The
overall cost of decontamination is estimated to be around 5 trillion
yen. Any plan to put a financial burden of trillions of yen on
taxpayers will not win public support unless TEPCO stakeholders,
especially its creditor banks, are held strictly accountable for the
problem.
The
most important condition for using taxpayer money to sort out the
situation, however, is that the government should take responsibility
and announce a plan to wean the nation from its dependency on nuclear
power.
The
government must not be allowed to permit the restart of one offline
reactor after another after establishing a precedent for tax
financing of part of the cost of dealing with the aftermath of the
nuclear accident.
Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe himself has pledged to reduce Japan’s
dependence on nuclear power generation.
The
government should start the process by announcing that older reactors
and those that are unable to pass the safety inspections by the
Nuclear Regulation Authority will be decommissioned as quickly as
possible. The government should also promise not to permit the
construction of any new nuclear power plant or the reconstruction of
a reactor within an existing plant.
CREATE
EFFECTIVE SYSTEM FOR DECOMMISSIONING REACTORS
The
government should also pull the plug on the long-standing program to
establish a nuclear fuel recycling system and scrap the Monju
prototype fast-breeder reactor and the Rokkasho fuel reprocessing
plant in Aomori Prefecture. That would free up the budgets for these
projects as well as reserves set aside by electric utilities for them
and allow the money to be used to finance measures to be taken at the
Fukushima plant.
After
that, the government should swiftly work out specific plans to build
facilities for the final disposal of radioactive waste, and deal with
the stockpiles of plutonium stored both in and outside Japan.
Another
urgent task is the establishment of a dependable system to
decommission reactors. The LDP’s proposals offer no decisive plan
for decommissioning the reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 plant and
tackling the problem of radioactive water, although the party
mentioned some proposed ideas. These included setting up a special
unit for these tasks within TEPCO, spinning off such a unit from the
utility and turning the company into an independent administrative
agency.
It
is clearly necessary to consider creating an independent entity
responsible for decommissioning reactors for all nuclear plant
operators, including TEPCO. At the very least, the current situation
in which TEPCO is seeking to restart the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant
while grappling with the Fukushima cleanup must not be allowed to
continue.
Trying
to bring the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant back online to ease the
financial burden on the public would be putting the cart before the
horse.
Another
priority task is to secure a safe working environment for workers at
the Fukushima plant. With TEPCO’s ability to perform the necessary
tasks on its own in doubt, the government should take responsibility
for protecting the health and welfare of Fukushima workers and
establish a system to provide necessary human and other resources for
the tasks that need to be carried out at the plant.
There
will be no true improvement in the situation if the government
decides to dip into state coffers to cover the costs without making
serious efforts to solve all these challenges.
Japanese
taxpayers are completely unwilling to pay for cleaning up TEPCO’s
mess.
--The
Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 2
*Fukushima
Daiichi operator should not handle shutdown, says governing party
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/31/japan-fukushima-daiichi-decommissioning-tepco
No comments:
Post a Comment