Former inhabitants of “no-return zones” around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant should be paid lump sums of 6 million yen ($72,000) each, the government’s panel on nuclear compensation has recommended.
Former inhabitants of “no-return zones” around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant should be paid lump sums of 6 million yen ($72,000) each, the government’s panel on nuclear compensation has recommended.
The Dispute Reconciliation Committee for Nuclear Damage Compensation, which has been tasked with drawing up guidelines for the compensation system, said March 16 that the payments would cover five years of mental anguish and the costs of living as an evacuee. Additional payments may be made if evacuation lasts longer.
The “no-return zone” is one of three new government categories that are set to be used as the basis for a revision of the evacuation orders applying to residents of areas surrounding the stricken Fukushima plant.
The “no-return zones” are the hardest hit areas, with annual radiation doses above 50 millisieverts. It means residents will not be allowed to return for at least five years.
The panel’s new guideline says that people from the no-return zones will receive the 6-million-yen lump sum, and that houses and other buildings in the no-return zones will be compensated at pre-disaster values. This is based on an assumption that the properties were rendered worthless by the disaster.
The next most seriously affected areas are the "no-residence zones," with annual radiation doses of between 20 and 50 millisieverts. The panel is recommending that people from those areas receive 2.4 million yen each to compensate them for a two-year evacuation from their homes.
They may be eligible for additional payments if evacuation lasts longer.
People from the third most seriously affected category—the "zones being prepared for the lifting of the evacuation order," with annual doses of 20 millisieverts or less—will receive 100,000 yen per month per head.
In the no-residence zones and the "zones being prepared for the lifting of the evacuation order," property owners will be compensated for the loss in value of their holdings due to the disaster, but the guidelines presented by the panel do not recommend specific depreciation ratios.
That has been left as a matter of negotiation between the Tokyo Electric Power Co., the nuclear plant operator, and individual residents.
The guidelines also state explicitly that residents' incomes from part-time jobs at evacuation sites and from other sources should not be deducted from compensation.
Local people had demanded the inclusion of the provision because TEPCO previously deducted such incomes from compensation.
Residents of areas that were designated as "emergency evacuation preparation zones" until Sept. 30 last year, including part of Minami-Soma, continue to receive 100,000 yen a month in compensation, but those payments will be discontinued at the end of August.
It has not yet been decided whether Tamura, Kawauchi and other municipalities will be designated as "zones being prepared for the lifting of the evacuation order" or as areas for immediate decontamination and the early return of residents.
A decision is expected to be made by the end of March.
The latest guidelines from the panel also do not give a time frame for the end of the compensation payments because it is not clear what progress will be made in rebuilding and decontamination.
The new no-residence zones and no-return zones will be officially designated in April at the earliest, because municipal governments are opposed to all zone designations being made at once.