Next month, Paris climate agreement will enter into force
PARIS AGREEMENT TO ENTER INTO FORCE IN A MONTH Historic climate treaty passes both thresholds The Climate Group 6 Oct 16 LONDON: Today, the Paris Agreement has officially passed the necessary threshold to begin the process for its official entry into force – meaning the Agreement will officially enter into force globally in a month’s time. In doing so, it will become the first comprehensive climate agreement that commits all countries to taking climate action with the goal of keeping global warming “well below” the 2 degrees Celsius limit.
“Much like the adoption of the Paris Agreement itself in December last year, the entry into force of the treaty is a truly historic moment,” comments Damian Ryan, acting CEO, The Climate Group. “Few international agreements have entered into force at such speed and arguably none have been so important to our common future as the Paris Agreement.
“The decision by many world leaders to act quickly and boldly over the past 10 months is to be applauded. Thanks should also go to the business leaders as well as politicians in state and regional governments whose actions and policies, such as committing to 100% renewable power, have helped create the momentum and political belief that a better, safer and more prosperous world can be created through bold climate action.”
A LONG JOURNEY
The first paragraph of article 21 in the Agreement states that it will enter into force on the thirtieth day after the date on which it passes its twin thresholds – namely, when at least 55 parties to the UNFCCC, accounting for at least 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions, have deposited their instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession with the UN. Or in less technical terms, when more than half of the world has ratified the climate deal.
In April, 175 political leaders signed the Agreement in a record-breaking signing ceremony organized in New York. The event built on the climate momentum generated by Paris, but many underlined that signing was just the first step of a much longer journey: there was still the more complicated ratification process, where countries discuss the issue internally and then formally commit to the agreement with a document presented to the UN.
However, just last month, US and China – the two biggest emitters in the world, accounting for about 40% of global carbon emissions – officially ratified the Paris climate agreement, spurring an unstoppable momentum toward the goal of 55% of world’s emissions. Last Sunday, India – the world’s fourth biggest emitter, responsible for 4% of emissions – also ratified the climate deal.
“This is a momentous occasion,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “What once seemed unthinkable, is now unstoppable. Strong international support for the Paris Agreement entering into force is a testament to the urgency for action, and reflects the consensus of governments that robust global cooperation, grounded in national action, is essential to meet the climate challenge.”
Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, commented: “Above all, entry into force bodes well for the urgent, accelerated implementation of climate action that is now needed to realize a better, more secure world and to support also the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals.”
The Paris Agreement will entry into force on November 4, just before the Conference of the Parties in Marrakech (COP22), where political leaders will discuss how to implement the ambitious goals set in Paris………https://www.theclimategroup.org/news/paris-agreement-enter-force-month
In USA, Republicans are rejecting reality on climate change – Pew survey
Pew survey: Republicans are rejecting reality on climate change
Only 48% of Americans – and 15% of conservative Republicans – realize that humans are causing global warming, Guardian, Dana Nuccitelli, 6 Oct 16, Climate scientists have 95% confidence that humans are the main cause of global warming over the past six decades. Their best estimate attributes 100% of global warming since 1950 to human activities. 90 to 100% of climate scientists and their research agree on this. Human-caused global warming is as settled as science gets.
Yet most Americans don’t realize it. Moreover, the more conservative a person’s ideology, the less likely they are to accept this scientific reality or to trust the scientific experts.
According to a new Pew Research Center poll, just 48% of Americans realize that the Earth is warming mostly due to human activity. Highlighting a vast partisan reality gap, 79% of liberal Democrats and just 15% of conservative Republicans answer the question correctly………https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/oct/06/pew-survey-republicans-are-rejecting-reality-on-climate-change
For Singapore, nuclear energy is not a viable option
Nuclear power not a viable option for now http://news.asiaone.com/news/mailbox/nuclear-power-not-viable-option-now 6 Oct 16 Mr Lim Soon Heng has proposed the building of small modular nuclear reactors out at sea, given our limited size (“A floating nuclear power plant – off Singapore?”; Tuesday). However, the territorial sea under the jurisdiction of Singapore is also not very large, given the size of our country. Singapore has a claim of about three nautical miles of territorial sea.
Building floating small modular nuclear reactors out at sea is innovative. But it is unfortunate that Singapore will always be hampered by its size, resulting in it not having a vast maritime space within its jurisdiction to manage. There are also other considerations, such as underwater earthquakes posing a safety concern, as we are not that far from Indonesia’s earthquake fault lines. …… http://news.asiaone.com/news/mailbox/nuclear-power-not-viable-option-now#sthash.DkvKNr41.dpufNew Zealand moves ahead to ratify Paris climate agreement
NZ takes final step on historic climate change agreement, NZ Herald, Oct 6, 2016 New Zealand has fast-tracked ratification of the Paris Agreement, getting in just before the threshold which brings the historic climate change agreement into force.
New Zealand’s ambassador in New York, Gerard van Bohemen, was to take the formal step to ratify the agreement at the United Nations overnight.
Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett said it was earlier than anticipated but had been fast-tracked with support of Opposition parties.
That was done to beat the European Union and ensure New Zealand was one of the countries to ratify before the threshold at which the agreement will come into force.
To come into force, at least 55 countries accounting for at least 55 per cent of total global greenhouse gas emissions have to ratify it.
Bennett said the European Union was initially not expected to ratify until next year, but had now moved to do so within the next week. The EU’s entry would push it over the 55 per cent of emissions required.
As a result New Zealand moved its own date forward from November when it had aimed to ratify in time for the next major climate change summit in Marrakesh.
“That means we are part of the first tranche. It is as much symbolic as anything else, to be part of that first tranche. But there have been noises that the ’55-club’ may be able to sit in different committees that are deciding accounting processes round forestry and international trading and that sort of thing.”
As of Tuesday night, 62 of the 191 countries to have signed the Paris Agreement had ratified, accounting for 51.89 per cent of total global greenhouse gas emissions.
They included major emitting countries such as China, the United States, India and Brazil……….http://www.nzherald.co.nz/environment/news/article.cfm?c_id=39&objectid=11722496
Sendai No 1 nuclear reactor shut down for safety work: this could drag on
Japan nuclear reactor shuttered for safety work, Channel News Asia 06 Oct 2016 TOKYO: A reactor at the centre of Japan’s national debate over nuclear power was halted on Thursday (Oct 6) under stricter post-Fukushima safety standards, as Tokyo struggles to bring back atomic energy.
Utility Kyushu Electric is shutting down the No. 1 reactor at its Sendai plant in southern Kagoshima for a few months of inspections and maintenance, leaving Japan with just two operating reactors.
But there is speculation that the reactor’s safety work could drag on longer.
Thursday’s shutdown follows demands from the region’s top politician that Kyushu Electric conduct extra safety inspections at its two operating reactors in the Sendai plant – after deadly quakes hammered a neighbouring prefecture in April.
Last month, the company refused governor Satoshi Mitazono’s demands to immediately shut down the reactors over safety concerns.
But it agreed to what it called “special inspections” in addition to regular maintenance work. Sendai’s No. 2 reactor will be shut down for a similar review starting in December………
Opposition to nuclear power has seen communities across the country file lawsuits to prevent restarts, including the Sendai plant.
The residents argued that the plant’s operator underestimated the scale of potential earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that could hit the region. A court rejected their argument and ordered restarts………http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/japan-nuclear-reactor-shuttered-for-safety-work/3184554.html
China’s huge top secret nuclear base now finally declassified
Top secret Chinese nuclear base opens to foreigners [good photos] , news.com.au , 6 Oct 15 IT’S A maze built to manufacture plutonium and house thousands of tonnes of explosives.
The 826 Nuclear Military Plant, a former top-secret Chinese base, is almost 20km wide, with 178 caves and more than 130 roads and tunnels.
The largest man-made cave in the world was commissioned in the 1960s, when Beijing feared an imminent nuclear attack from the Soviet Union.
More than 60,000 engineering soldiers participated in the construction, and at least 100 of them were reportedly killed during the process.
It’s hidden deep in the mountains of Fuling, in the Chongqing municipality of central China, and can reportedly withstand a magnitude 8.0 earthquake.
The largest cave is nearly 80m high, or roughly the height of a 20-storey building, and the tunnels are wide enough to drive through……..The huge undertaking took 17 years to build, and was nearly completed when it was abruptly cancelled due to changes in Cold War politics in 1984.
It’s just undergone an extensive renovation, and is now open to foreign visitors for the first time…….http://www.news.com.au/travel/world-travel/asia/top-secret-chinese-nuclear-base-opens-to-foreigners/news-story/2ab679cdfd44e04a7fdf01b1b3a1a61d
Both right wing and left wing attack New York’s nuclear subsidy
Nuclear plan gets backlash from left, right, Daily Star, By Joe Mahoney CNHI State Reporter, 5 Oct 16 ALBANY — A coalition of environmental and consumer activists warned Wednesday that New York electricity customers will be jolted by a “huge tax” stemming from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to subsidize aging nuclear power plants.
Contaminated Water Tanks Without Fondation Bolts at Fukushima Daiichi
More than 1000 contaminated water tanks at Fukushima Daiichi, some do not have fondation bolts.
Even with a moderate earthquake of seismic intensity 4 there is a risk that those contaminated water tanks collapse.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission of Japan has published on their website the seismic statement submitted by TEPCO about those tanks without fondation bolts. Their quake-resistance standard is 0.3G lower.
http://www.nsr.go.jp/data/000107385.pdf
The photograph below clearly shows the tank without fondation bolts.
Seismic intensity 4 and typhoons could cause the collapse of those contaminated water tanks. In case of tanks collapsing, a large amount of contaminated water would of course flow into the Pacific Ocean.
Japan Grapples with Cost of Scrapping Fukushima Plant
Tepco’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, site of the 2011 meltdowns.
TOKYO — Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings promises to shoulder as much of the burden as possible in dealing with the aftermath of the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, but additional outside assistance is deemed inevitable to cover the gargantuan cost of dismantling the facility.
An expert panel under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry began deliberations over the additional costs of the 2011 disaster on Wednesday. Attendees included Yoshimitsu Kobayashi, chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives, and Akio Mimura, chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“We want to fully meet our responsibility for the Fukushima disaster without receiving government assistance,” said Tepco President Naomi Hirose, who attended as an observer.
Tepco has allocated 2 trillion yen ($19.3 billion) so far in preparation for the decades-long process to decommission its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. But it is expected to need trillions more once it starts to remove melted nuclear nuclear fuel from the site.
The bulk of the cost will not hit until the 2020s, so the government has made little progress in creating a framework to provide assistance, unlike efforts in compensating victims and decontaminating the surrounding area.
Hirose explained that once Tepco can give a realistic estimate, it will be required to recognize the entire cost at once and could turn insolvent. “We’d like the government to come up with a framework to eliminate such risks,” he said.
The panel will project decommissioning costs in its future meetings, and will make recommendations to Tepco regarding necessary reforms and restructuring by the end of the year. The utility will aim to create a new management plan in January based on the panel’s proposals. The economy ministry will iron out details on how to assist Tepco based on the expense estimate, such as by creating a reserve fund where Tepco can put aside the necessary money.
The discussion will focus on how much of the cost Tepco can assume through internal reforms. In addition to dismantling the plant, total compensation to victims is already expected to top 6.4 trillion yen, while decontamination could cost about 4 trillion yen — both above projections from January 2014. It will take Tepco and other major utilities decades to pay that off under the current framework. An update is in order.
“I am not in favor of any rescue plan that involves the government shouldering what Tepco should be paying,” said Hitotsubashi University professor Kunio Ito, who heads the expert panel. But he said something like that could happen “as a last resort.” A ministry official also suggested there may be a debate on raising electricity prices to help fund the decommissioning.
If the plan is to hike rates on customers not served by Tepco, the utility needs to put forth a strategy for reform that can satisfy the entire Japanese public. The government’s program will depend on how far Tepco is willing to go.
Tepco Threatens To Declare Bankruptcy; Dismantling Unit 1
Calls grow to curb further govt. support to TEPCO
Members of a panel looking at how to cover costs from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident say government support to the operator should be limited.
Economic leaders and academic experts attended the first meeting on Wednesday of a committee set up by the industry ministry to discuss decommissioning and compensation costs.
Officials said the government has earmarked about 87 billion dollars for compensation and decontamination work, and that operator Tokyo Electric Power Company has set aside about 19 billion dollars to scrap the crippled reactors.
But they said these funds could fall well short of the amount that will be needed.
Many participants said the utility must bear the increased financial burden through business restructuring and management reforms to curb additional government support.
TEPCO President Naomi Hirose, who took part in the meeting as an observer, warned that his company could become insolvent if it is forced to post the ballooning decommissioning costs as a debt.
He argued that a special accounting rule should be created to avoid a possible insolvency.
Before the next meeting is held, the government plans to show how much the cost of decommissioning the reactors is projected to grow.
Hirose told reporters after the meeting that his company should be the first to foot the bill, and that the firm will consider what should be done to absorb the cost.
Tepco Falls After President Highlights Fukushima Cost Risk
Japan utility declines 3.3% to settle at lowest in two weeks
Company seeks government help to eliminate insolvency risk
Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings Inc. closed at the lowest in more than two weeks after its president said it may face insolvency if it recognized at one time the cost of decommissioning the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant and that it’s asked the government to help eliminate the risk.
Tepco, as the company is better known, fell as much as 7.9 percent during intraday trading and closed 3.3 percent lower at 414 yen a share in Tokyo, the lowest since Sept. 16. The benchmark Topix index rose 0.6 percent.
“As it becomes possible to estimate the Fukushima decommissioning cost, we will have the problem of recognizing the liability at once. That means there is a possibility Tepco becomes insolvent,” President Naomi Hirose told reporters in Tokyo Wednesday after meeting with a Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry commission charged with reforming the company. “We are requesting institutional measures to remove such risk.”
As of June, nearly 1 trillion yen ($9.7 billion) has been allocated to decommissioning and water treatment at Fukushima, Tepco spokesman Tatsuhiro Yamagishi said last month.
The March 2011 nuclear accident and its fallout will ultimately cost more than 11 trillion yen, according to a study by Japanese college professors including Kenichi Oshima, a professor of economics at Ritsumeikan University.
Tepco calls for government help to curb impact of rising Fukushima costs
A worker puts up new logo of TEPCO Holdings and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) Group on the wall ahead of the transition to a holding company system through a company split at the TEPCO headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, March 31, 2016.
The operator of the nuclear power plant destroyed in the Fukushima disaster five years ago has asked Japan’s government for help in avoiding the risk of the utility going bankrupt should there be a sharp rise in the full estimated clean-up costs.
Tokyo Electric Power Co Holdings Inc didn’t specify what kind of help it was seeking, but people familiar with the matter said Japan’s biggest utility is looking for new rules to avoid having to book a huge loss in its accounts if it is estimated that there will be big cost overruns for decommissioning the power station.
“We don’t want to receive national rescue measures but want to bear the Fukushima responsibility ourselves,” Tepco president Naomi Hirose told a government panel, according the panel chief, Kunio Ito, a professor at Hitotsubashi University.
“For that reason, we would like to undertake steps for a further overhaul than we have had so far,” Hirose was quoted as saying.
In March 2011, one of the worst earthquakes in history triggered a 10-metre high tsunami that crashed into the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, causing the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl 30 years ago. Meltdowns in three reactors released radiation over a wide area, contaminating water, food and air, and forcing more than 160,000 people to evacuate.
Dismantling the reactors is expected to take about 40 years, but even five and a half years on, Tepco still struggles to contain radioactive water from the plant and has said it can’t predict the eventual total costs of the clean-up and decommissioning.
After the panel meeting on Tepco reform and the Fukushima Daiichi plant, Hirose told reporters that it was difficult to accurately predict the costs of even a gradual decommissioning of the crippled reactors, said a spokeswoman for the utility, which generates about a third of the country’s electricity.
“If the issue of recognising all the estimated losses at once were to emerge, our company would fail, so we would like some structural assistance from the government to be able to avoid that risk,” Hirose said.
Tepco wants the government to consider introducing rules to avoid having to book a single huge exceptional loss as soon as cost estimates for decommissioning become clearer, said a person familiar with the situation.
Cost estimates could shoot up when the company and the government, which owns 50.1 percent of Tepco, decide on how to extract fuel debris at the plant in 2018 or 2019, said a person with direct knowledge of discussions on restructuring Tepco.
A government official familiar with the deliberations said, “In the event that Tepco can’t shoulder the burden, it will mean changing the fiscal-support system.” As it’s hard to imagine the government letting the company go bust, “in the end it will have to be a matter of either shouldering the burden with public funds or responding by raising electricity prices.”
The Mainichi newspaper said on Wednesday that Japan’s utilities lobby expects clean-up and compensation costs from the Fukushima disaster to overshoot previous estimates by 8.1 trillion yen (£62 billion).
The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan has informally asked the government to shoulder the extra cost, the newspaper said.
However, a federation spokesman said the group has not asked the government to shoulder any extra costs and the Mainichi estimates were not correct.
The new government panel also agreed that management reform at Tepco was necessary at its first meeting earlier in the day, panel chief Ito said.
Shares in Tepco ended down 3.3 percent after falling as much as 7.9 percent on Hirose’s remarks, which were initially interpreted as a plea for additional financial aid.
“The stock market seems to have reacted to the headline that it could become insolvent,” said a credit analyst at a Japanese brokerage. “But in reality, the president has just said what’s been known, that they need an accounting system that allows them to write off the cost of decommissioning gradually because posting the cost all at once could make it insolvent.”
http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-tepco-outlook-idUKKCN1250JT
Japan’s nuclear regulator caves to industry interests yet again–Gives nearly 40 year old reactor a green light before the aging safety review even completed
5 October 2016, Tokyo – Today, Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has again exposed itself as industry-captured by giving the Mihama 3 reactor owned by Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO) a green light under post-Fukushima guidelines — clearing the way for restart — even before the regulator has completed its ageing-related safety review. The safety risks of age-related degradation can be enormous.
“The Mihama 3 reactor is like a vintage 1976 car that’s been driven at top speed for nearly 4 decades — and then sat idle for more than 5 years. Major safety components wear out, designs become outdated, and extended disuse creates yet another set of safety problems. Worse, it’s already been in a major accident 12 years ago due to a high-pressure pipe rupture that killed 5 workers. Most people wouldn’t just load up the kids in a car like that and speed off on a road trip. Yet, KEPCO and the NRA are trying to do just that, and they haven’t finished looking under the hood to see if the engine is alright. Unlike old cars, if an old reactor has a major accident, the victims can number in the hundreds of thousands and the crash site can extend for hundreds of kilometers. It’s nothing short of reckless, and puts the lives and livelihoods of families throughout the region at unnecessary risk,” said Kendra Ulrich, Senior Global Energy Campaigner for Greenpeace Japan.
Nuclear power plants are enormously complex, and safety-related components are only subject to normal age-related degradation. Constant irradiation of major components embrittles the metal, leading to an increased likelihood of potentially catastrophic failure during operation or emergency shutdown.
The Mihama 3 reactor is also located in the seismically-active Wakasa Bay region. The deep concerns over inadequate seismic assessments for the KEPCO’s Ohi reactors – also located in Wakasa Bay – pushed former NRA commissioner and seismologist, Kunihiko Shimazaki, to challenge the regulator directly. Although the NRA dismissed his concerns, the agency admitted that they could not reproduce the figures submitted by KEPCO in their assessment and so could not independently verify their accuracy. The same potentially faulty seismic assessment method was applied to Mihama 3.
The restart of aging reactors in Fukui has caused concern in surrounding prefectures. On 23 August, the Kyoto Governor Keiji Yamada said of the potential restart of the Takahama 1&2 reactors, “ . . .we should be extremely wary when it comes to aging nuclear reactors.”(1)
The restart of Mihama 3 is currently being challenged in court as a part of an umbrella lawsuit against all Fukui reactors. Greenpeace staff are plaintiffs in a case against KEPCO’s aging Takahama 1 & 2 reactors, also in Wakasa Bay.
Notes:
- Kyoto governor doesn’t accept Takahama 1, 2 reactor restart（京都府知事、容認せぬ姿勢 高浜原発１・２号機) Kyoto Newspaper on 23 August 2016 (accessed on 4 October 2016)
- Tomorrow, 6 October 2016, the Sendai 1 reactor in Kagoshima will be taken offline for scheduled maintenance. The newly-elected Kagoshima governor has repeatedly demanded the Sendai reactors be shut down for further safety checks. Due to his ongoing opposition to the operation of the reactors, it is unlikely that Sendai 1 will restart again before the end of 2016.
http://www.greenpeace.org/japan/ja/news/press/2016/pr201610051/
NRA grants aging Mihama reactor 20-year extension
OSAKA – The Nuclear Regulation Authority gave a green light Wednesday to extending the life of Kansai Electric Power Co.’s 40-year-old Mihama No. 3 reactor in Mihama, Fukui Prefecture, by 20 years.
The ruling was certain to provoke questions in Kansai and elsewhere about whether the NRA is lax on safety concerns.
Safety work related to the extension still needs to be carried out and is expected to take years to complete. Kepco hopes to restart the reactor sometime after the summer of 2020.
Wednesday’s decision marks the second time the NRA has approved extending the life of a 40-year-old reactor to 60. It previously approved restarting Kepco’s Takahama No. 1 and 2 reactors, which are 42 and 41 years old, respectively.
Under new guidelines adopted after the Fukushima triple meltdown in 2011, operators must decide whether to decommission units or apply to the NRA for a one-time, two-decade-maximum extension once a plant becomes 40 years old.
Fukui Gov. Issei Nishikawa and neighboring Shiga and Kyoto prefectures have expressed safety concerns over reactors that are more than 40 years old and questioned the necessity of restarting old reactors.
Obtaining local political consent for a restart could thus prove tougher for Kepco than might be the case for a younger reactor. Kyoto Gov. Keiji Yamada has already expressed wariness over the decision to restart the Takahama No. 1 and 2 reactors.
Citizens’ groups in and around Mihama are also expected to seek temporary injunctions in local district courts to halt the restart, which could mean a further delay in plans to turn it back on.
Greenpeace Japan criticized Wednesday’s decision. In a statement, Senior Global Energy Campaigner Kendra Ulrich said Mihama No. 3 was like a vintage 1976 car that was driven for four decades but has sat idle for more than five years, and that restarting it now puts the lives of people in the Kansai region at risk.
“Major safety components wear out, designs become outdated, and extended disuse creates yet another set of safety problems,” Ulrich said. “Worse, there was a major accident 12 years ago due to a high-pressure pipe rupture that killed five workers.”
Currently, five reactors that are more than 40 years old and one that is 39 years old are to be scrapped over the coming decades, including Kepco’s Mihama No. 1 and 2 reactors.
Record-breaking typhoon moves northeast to northern Japan
Typhoon No. 18, packing record-setting winds, was creeping northeast and is expected to hit the Hokuriku and Tohoku regions starting on the afternoon of Oct. 5.
Known as Typhoon Chaba outside Japan, the storm was 120 kilometers north of Tsushima island and moving at a speed of 45 kph as of noon. It could make landfall later in the day or early on Oct. 6.
Wide areas of western and eastern Japan are expected to see heavy rain through Oct. 5. Some areas could be drenched with more than 50 millimeters of rain per hour.
Expected rainfall in the 24 hours until the morning of Oct. 6 is 200 mm on Shikoku island and in the Kinki region, 180 mm in northern Kyushu, and 150 mm in southern Kyushu as well as the Tokai, Hokuriku and Kanto-Koshin regions.
The typhoon cut through waters west of the Okinawa island chain and headed north on Oct. 4.
In the early hours of that day, a maximum wind speed of 173.2 kph was recorded on Kumejima, an island west of the main Okinawa island.
It was the strongest wind recorded on the island since official typhoon observations began in 1951.
77.2 Billion Dollars in Public Funds Sought for Post-Fukushima Disaster Costs
They were telling us that nuclear energy was safe and cheap….
8 trillion yen in public funds sought for post-Fukushima disaster costs
The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan (FEPC) has informally asked the government to inject some 8 trillion yen in public funds into efforts for nuclear damage compensation and decontamination work in areas around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, it has been learned.
The FEPC has drawn up a report stating that an extra 8 trillion yen is estimated to be necessary even after Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) and other major utilities shoulder the planned amount of costs for dealing with the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, and has informally requested that the government foot the surplus amount. The government has heretofore taken the position that nuclear plant operators should bear the costs for nuclear damage compensation and decontamination work in principle. It is therefore expected to approach the request with caution.
The costs for Fukushima disaster damage compensation and decontamination work are funded under the following steps: the state issues cashable government compensation bonds to the Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corp. (NDF), a government-authorized corporation; TEPCO then receives necessary funds from the NDF and spends them on nuclear damage compensation and decontamination work; the NDF then receives due contributions from TEPCO and other major utilities and pays back the funds to the state.
Among the contributions made by power companies to the NDF, funds for nuclear damage compensation are shouldered by TEPCO and other major utilities, and the funds for decontamination work are covered by profits on the sale of TEPCO shares held by the NDF, while the funds for building interim storage facilities for radioactive waste are covered by revenues from the tax on the promotion of power resources development.
In 2013, the government estimated that nuclear damage compensation would cost 5.4 trillion yen, while decontamination work would require 2.5 trillion yen and construction costs for temporary storage facilities for radioactive waste and other expenses would need 1.1 trillion yen. The total amounts to be granted to the NDF were estimated at a maximum 9 trillion yen.
However, the FEPC now forecasts that damage compensation would cost 2.6 trillion yen more at 8 trillion yen and the decontamination expenses 4.5 trillion yen more at 7 trillion yen, according to sources familiar with the matter. Furthermore, the FEPC forecasts that profits on the sale of TEPCO shares would be 1 trillion yen less than the initial estimate due to a fall in the stock prices, bringing the total fund shortages to 8.1 trillion yen.
Major utilities fear that they would ultimately be forced to shoulder the additional burden as the enormous costs for decontamination work cannot be covered by profits on the sale of TEPCO shares.
The FEPC has unofficially asked that the government foot the extra amount of costs necessary for nuclear damage compensation and decontamination work on the grounds that the business environment for major utilities has deteriorated amid the stalled reactivation of nuclear reactors that have been left idle since the Fukushima disaster and the intensifying competition among power companies following the liberalization of the electricity retail market this past spring.
While TEPCO has forked out 2 trillion yen for the decommissioning of disaster-stricken reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, several trillion yen extra is projected to be necessary to cover the expenses. In July, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. asked for government assistance in covering the expenses for reactor decommissioning at the plant and other efforts. The FEPC’s recent request to the government, meanwhile, does not include financial assistance for reactor decommissioning.
The government is poised to discuss the costs for Fukushima disaster damage compensation and reactor decommissioning at a panel on TEPCO reform and Fukushima No. 1 plant issues to be convened on Oct. 5, where the FEPC’s request is likely to be deliberated on.
http://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20161004/p2a/00m/0na/017000c
1 This Month
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
of the week–London Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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