The 12 domestic electricity companies that operate nuclear power facilities will pay 7 billion yen ($91 million) to a body set up to help Tokyo Electric Power Co. compensate people affected by the accident at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The 12 domestic electricity companies that operate nuclear power facilities will pay 7 billion yen ($91 million) to a body set up to help Tokyo Electric Power Co. compensate people affected by the accident at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Each company must pay between 100 million yen and 2.4 billion yen to the Nuclear Damage Compensation Facilitation Corp., depending on how much nuclear power it produces.
The government will also pay 7 billion yen to the body.
The contributions will be made by nine of the 10 regional electricity utilities in Japan, excluding Okinawa Electric Power Co., which has no nuclear plant. Payments will also come from the Japan Atomic Power Co., the Electric Power Development Co. (J-POWER), which is building a nuclear plant, and the Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd., which has a reprocessing plant.
TEPCO will pay the largest share of 2.379 billion yen, followed by Kansai Electric Power Co. at 1.229 billion yen and Chubu Electric Power Co. at 622 million yen.
The companies will also have to make large annual payments. Those amounts, which the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will determine on the basis of the actual output of each company's nuclear plants, are expected to reach tens of billions of yen per company per year.
Following the establishment of the compensation corporation, TEPCO and the corporation will jointly draft a special operations plan that will map out how TEPCO will meet its obligations through downsizing and other measures. They will then approach the government for assistance.
The government is expected to issue "kofu kokusai" government bonds in lieu of cash to the corporation. The bonds will be exchangeable for cash when the need arises. To assist TEPCO's compensation payments, the facilitation corporation will extend loans to TEPCO or purchase TEPCO's corporate bonds.