nuclear-news

Prefecture’s subsidies for residents near Fukushima No. 1 plant to run out next year

FUKUSHIMA – Fukushima Prefecture’s fund to provide subsidies to residents living near Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is expected to run out during fiscal 2017, sources said Tuesday.

The prefectural government will hold talks with nine municipalities around the plant this autumn to decide whether to abolish the subsidy program during fiscal 2016, which ends next March, or find a new revenue source to continue it, the sources said.

The fund finances benefits provided to some 33,770 households and offices in the nine municipalities.

The balance of the fund is expected to decline to about ¥50 million by the end of fiscal 2016 from ¥280 million a year before.

Benefits to residents near the plant began in fiscal 1981. Initially, they were provided by the central government through the prefecture.

The central government halted the grants to the prefecture at the end of fiscal 2014, after Tepco decided in January 2014 to decommission all of the reactors at the plant following its triple meltdown in March 2011.

But the prefectural government continued the provision using subsidies not given to residents whose whereabouts became unknown after the nuclear disaster started.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/06/29/national/prefectures-subsidies-residents-near-fukushima-no-1-plant-run-next-year/

June 29, 2016 - Posted by dunrenard | Fukushima 2016 | Fukushima continuing, Fukushima Daiichi, Subsidies