Friday, April 27, 2012

TEPCO to Raise Utility Charges for Households to Pay for Decommissioning #Fukushima Reactors

The company wants to raise the utility charges by 700 yen (US$8.70) per average household whose utility bill is 6,973 yen per month. If the national government approves, the rate hike will be effective in July.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (4/28/2012):

東電、廃炉費支援を要請…家庭700円値上げ

TEPCO requests support for decommissioning costs, raising the utility charges for households by 700 yen

東京電力は27日、政府による資金支援の前提となるコスト削減策を盛り込んだ総合特別事業計画を枝野経済産業相に提出した。

On April 27, TEPCO submitted the Special Business Plan to Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yukio Edano including cost-cutting measures, which are prerequisite for the financial support from the national government.

福島第一原子力発電所の廃炉と除染の費用について政府に資金支援を要請している。数兆円規模とみられる追加費用を東電単独で負担するのは困難と判断した。

TEPCO is requesting the government assistance for the decommissioning and decontamination of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. The company has determined that it would be difficult to bear the additional cost of several trillion yen on its own.

 計画には、7月から家庭向け電気料金で「10%の前半」の値上げ方針も盛り込まれた。政府が認可すれば、標準家庭の月額の電気料金(6月分、6973円)が700円程度上がる。7月の料金値上げ後に公的資金による増資が行われ、事実上国有化される。

The plan includes the rate hike for the utility charges for households starting July, by "slightly over 10%". If the government approves it, the monthly utility charges for the average household (6973 yen for the month of June) will rise by 700 yen. After the rate hike in July, the government will inject capital using public money, effectively nationalizing the company.

 政府は賠償支払いについて現時点で累計2兆5462億円の資金支援を計画している。だが、廃炉費用は支援対象ではなく、東電負担が原則だ。除染費用も含め、東電が数兆円単位で追加負担することになれば債務超過に陥りかねない。

The government currently plans to support TEPCO on disaster compensation payments with 2.5462 trillion yen [US$31.6 billion], but the decommissioning of the reactors is not part of the support and has to be borne by TEPCO. The additional burden of several trillion yen [for decommissioning and decontamination] on TEPCO might render the company insolvent.


So the work that still continues at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant is not supported by the national government, and the TEPCO household customers in Kanto region will have to pick up the tab so that TEPCO can continue the work. Something's not right. But then, the national government is broke to the tune of the debt to GDP ratio of 240% (the US just passed 100% mark at the end of March by the way), and any money coming out of the government will be taken from the taxpayers anyway, whether it's for disaster compensation or decommissioning.

So much for clean and cheap energy that was nuclear.

And US$31.6 billion worth of money from the government for disaster compensation? Peanuts. The US Treasury Department raises that kind of amount in one single treasury auction.

15 comments:

Vivre said...

The nuke-industry has ever since been insolvent. Without burdening any theoretical full cost on the population from begining on, no nuc-plant would have ever been build.
They (we) only now get the bill - and it won't be the last one.
But what does it help to give away money if can't by life with it?

Anonymous said...

In any event, the consumers will have to pay for it. They will pay either through increased electricity rates, or they will pay through it via increased income taxes with the government acting as go-between. If Tepco were operated like a normal company, it would have been bankrupted by this disaster, and again the taxpayers would have been left holding the bill. There will be no magic fairy to come and wish this disaster away.

Anonymous said...

Thorium is a Toxic substance. We should leave it in the ground. Thorium fuelled molten salt reactor are a disaster waiting to happen.

Thorium Dioxide Toxicity

http://digitalfire.com/4sight/hazards/ceramic_hazard_thorium_dioxide_toxicity_344.html

Anonymous said...

What else does it take to convince pro-nuclear people that nuclear energy is neither safe, nor cheap or "clean"?
*mscharisma*

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

An independent Japanese journalist went to the Ukraine recently and interviewed people. They said to him, "We're poor, so despite Chernobyl we have to rely on nuclear energy. But since Japan is a rich country you don't need nuclear energy."

Well Japan will be a poor country over this accident.

Anonymous said...

Sure, pour as money as you can into the nuclear black hole!
Radiation and plutonium are just very harmless elements that help humans in their daily lives....even though they will be cut short soon.

Only idiots and the brain dead public believes, the constant lies and wrong information coming from Japan & TEPCO. What World War II couldn't do, the Japanese are doing it to themselves!

Go Japan!

Anonymous said...

@anon at 6:58, Japan is hardly alone. The US is doing it. France is doing it. Ukraine is doing it. Vietnam wants it, Lithuania wants it, even Belarus wants it. Not to mention China and India who wants to build fastbreeder reactor.

Anonymous said...

For poisoning Japan and the world TEPCO should never recover again. Humanity doesn't seem to have sufficiently evolved consciousness to deal safely with nuclear energy.

Anonymous said...

It's only cheap and clean in the context of the average human's present moment of ignorance.

Anonymous said...

String up TEPCO executives for crimes against humanity.

Anonymous said...

In Tokyo, I take special pleasure in turning off lights when they will not be used. It is a small treat to tell myself F*#@ TEPCO each time I conserve when I would not have conserved eighteen months ago. I'm sure I'm not alone. It will take more than a ten percent rate hike to make up for the savings I am creating through conservation.

Anonymous said...

Rate increase? Surprise! That must be some more of that electricity too cheap to meter. Six sigma gets the gold mine and global DNA gets the shaft.

Chibaguy said...

I do not know of any other industry that can destroy land forever and raise costs! Can anyone say we need a public vote? No vote, no tax payer money for starters. Go public and see what happens. As for thorium, keep that in the ground. Why go more toxic? Thorium alone cannot power a reactor.

Anonymous said...

No tax payer money, and then what? Then you have to go begging internationally for your radiation remediation project, like Chernobyl is begging for cash to build a new sarcophagus. Calling for the execution of Tepco executives may be fine for some, but the problem of the broken and very hazardous reactors will not get solved by emotional appeals for violence, and it probably won't get solved without government (rea: taxpayer) money.

robertb said...

Liquidate Tepcos funds immediatly. Get a competent decommissioning company in there. Do not charge citizens for the destruction of their lives. Ridiculous.

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