Japanese nuclear plant operators charge customers over 90 million dollars per year to pay local authorities

WEDNESDAY, 23 JANUARY 2013

Japanese nuclear plant operators charge over 90 million dollars per year to pay local authorities

(Source) http://enformable.com/2013/01/japanese-nuclear-plant-operators-charge-over-90-million-dollars-per-year-to-pay-local-authorities/
A report by NHK has shown that operators of nuclear power plants in Japan charge the public users over 90 million dollars per year, in order to cover payments made to local authorities in the areas which host the nuclear sites. Last year, the central government announced that it did not consider these charges as an expense, and that it would no longer allow utilities to charge users to cover them.
Osaka University Professor Tatsuo Hatta says utilities may be able to find other ways to compensate themselves for the payments, and is calling for further transparency.
Kansai Electric has been charging their users around 40 million dollars per year, TEPCO charges around 22 million, Kyushu charges around 10 million, Chugoku charges about 8 million, and Chubu charges about 4 million.
Government authorities are beginning to see the attempt to buy support, or silent acquiescence of communities, by hooking them on generous subsidies and pay outs, as a detriment to the sustained growth and development of these areas, as it promotes a false market and leaves local communities dependent on the additional sources of income.
“This structure of dependency makes it impossible for communities to speak out against the plants or nuclear power,” said Shuji Shimizu, a professor of public finance at Fukushima University told the New York Times after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
One Japanese resident, who ran for the office of May of Kashima spoke out against the effect that these payments have on local authorities. “They call it a nuclear power plant, but it should actually be called a political power plant,” he said. He explained how local communities and leaders use the jobs and money they receive to secure the support of key voters and industries and make them more reliant on the local leaders and the compensation from nuclear sites.
h/t I check this blog regularly (arclight2011)

from the blog….
“We are Japanese people living in the UK. We are not activists or scientists, just normal citizens who want peace in the world and to protect our environment in a way that serves everybody. We are aware that there isn’t enough information in the main stream media in the UK about what’s going on in Fukushima, and we would like to share with you what we’ve found from Japanese web sites: information and news from scientists and doctors who are extremely worried about the safety of citizens, and from concerned freelance journalists and ordinary people. Since the magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami, followed by the Fukushima nuclear disaster, we have been feeling a huge sense of loss… and have learned that nothing stays the same. Also we think that the Fukushima disaster was actually the result of many years of global political and economic corruption going on behind the scenes, and that the Japanese government was taken in by the worldwide drive for nuclear power, without learning the lessons of the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings. (NB: English is not our native language, so please take this into account when reading this blog.)”

http://fukushimaappeal.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/japanese-nuclear-plant-operators-charge.html