MINAMI-SOMA, Fukushima Prefecture--Hit hard by the nuclear disaster, Minami-Soma city will again decline subsidies given to host communities of nuclear plants to send a clear anti-nuclear message to the government and electric power companies. Minami-Soma has received 500 million yen ($6.48 million) in subsidies since 1986 for being part of the planned site of Tohoku Electric Co.'s Namie-Odaka nuclear power plant.
MINAMI-SOMA, Fukushima Prefecture--Hit hard by the nuclear disaster, Minami-Soma city will again decline subsidies given to host communities of nuclear plants to send a clear anti-nuclear message to the government and electric power companies.
Minami-Soma has received 500 million yen ($6.48 million) in subsidies since 1986 for being part of the planned site of Tohoku Electric Co.'s Namie-Odaka nuclear power plant.
Municipalities are required to apply for the subsidies in May and in October. Minami-Soma did not apply in May after the Great East Japan Earthquake.
The city will not apply in October, either.
"In response to the (Fukushima) accident, we won't accept nuclear power plants now nor in the future," Minami-Soma Mayor Katsunobu Sakurai told The Asahi Shimbun. "By not applying for the subsidies, this city will make it clear that it is against the new plant construction."
Minami-Soma's decision alone will not stop construction of the plant, which Tohoku Electric plans to start operating in fiscal 2021. But without the city's consent, the electric power company will find it difficult to proceed.
Minami-Soma has also been receiving an annual subsidy of 55 million yen under a law that provides money to communities adjacent to a nuclear power plant.
That plant is Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, whose meltdowns following the March 11 quake put Minami-Soma in the voluntary evacuation zone.
"The priority goes to refusing subsidies related to a newly developed plant location," a Minami-Soma planning official said. "We will discuss whether to reject TEPCO-related subsidies."
The city is a shareholder of both Tohoku Electric and TEPCO.
With Minami-Soma's general account budget for this fiscal year totaling about 27.7 billion yen, the impact from rejecting the subsidies for the Tohoku Electric plant is expected to be minimal.
Although Minami-Soma can afford to turn down the subsidies, other communities that host operating or planned nuclear power plants have become largely dependent on the payments.
The subsidy system has promoted construction of nuclear power plants since the late 1970s, especially in underpopulated areas.
But the subsidies have not been used effectively to revive local industries nor promote a sense of self-reliance. Some of the municipalities have used the subsidies to build public facilities.
But once operations of a nuclear power plant start, the size of the subsidies and the amount the nuclear plant operator pays for fixed property taxes decrease dramatically.
With their revenue dwindling, the municipalities often seek to host another reactor for additional subsidies.
Part of the subsidies comes from payments on electricity bills in the form of an electric power development promotion tax.
According to government documents, the tax accounts for about 108 yen of the 6,222 yen in monthly electricity charges paid by an average household in the area that TEPCO serves.
The breakdown, however, does not appear on electricity bills.
(This article was written by Naoki Kimura and Atsushi Komori.)