Govt, TEPCO must share compensation burdens
There is no sign yet of when the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture will be brought under control. Compensation for damages stemming from the accident is bound to be tremendous.
Under the current system, TEPCO in principle bears the entire responsibility for paying damages, but the private firm's resources are finite. Consequently, the government must help ensure that people who suffered as a result of the crisis are fully and fairly compensated.
The government has established a headquarters to deal with economic damage due to the nuclear power plant crisis, with all Cabinet ministers as members. It has also set up a dispute reconciliation committee for such damage compensation, an expert panel assigned to draft compensation guidelines. We hope the government will come up with concrete measures on the issue.
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Huge compensation needed
TEPCO plans to provide provisional compensation payments as early as this month, of 1 million yen per household to evacuated families and those living in zones where people have been advised to keep indoors. Many such people are facing financial difficulties in everyday life as a result of their hasty evacuations. We hope TEPCO will make the payments as soon as possible.
After the provisional payments, work toward realizing full-fledged compensation, such as calculating an appropriate sum for each household, should be treated as an urgent task.
In the case of the 1999 criticality accident at JCO Co.'s nuclear fuel conversion facility in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, 150 people evacuated for three days, resulting in total compensation of 15 billion yen for business and personal damages.
The number of evacuees concerned this time is far greater, currently estimated at about 80,000, and is expected to increase further. Damage to farms and fisheries caused by radioactive substances is also expanding and serious.
The Law on Compensation for Nuclear Damage stipulates that the state will pay up to 120 billion yen per nuclear power plant in the case of an accident caused by an earthquake or tsunami. That is probably far short of the amount necessary this time.
But the law also stipulates that, if the damage is caused by "an abnormally large natural disaster," the central government will shoulder the entire cost of compensation.
However, the government and TEPCO have different views on the meaning of "an abnormally large natural disaster," making a settlement of the issue likely to take considerable time.
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Follow basic principle
To accelerate the work of extending compensation to evacuated residents, it would be appropriate to follow the basic principle of the law: TEPCO accepts a certain degree of burden and the central government assists by paying the rest.
In that case, an important point will be how to decide the amount of compensation to be shouldered by TEPCO. If the company's financial strength is so depleted that it has difficulty maintaining service and is unable to invest in programs to beef up its power supply capacity, it could lead to serious problems in the future.
While taking necessary steps on one hand, such as clarifying TEPCO's degree of corporate responsibility for failing to prevent the accident, the government has to decide on a compensation amount that would leave the utility firm solvent.
Recently a new compensation plan surfaced. According to the plan, in addition to burdens to be paid by TEPCO, other power companies will offer financial contributions in a mutual aid system, according to the number of nuclear reactors each company possesses.
The Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant crisis is a serious problem, not only for TEPCO but for the entire power industry. To prepare for an emergency, it may be better for the industry to adopt a mechanism such as the mutual aid system, under which the companies help each other.
Govt must offer world accurate nuclear info
Distrust is growing in countries around the world over the Japanese government's handling of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The nuclear accident caused by the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami is the common concern of the international community. The government should release accurate information about it as quickly as possible, not only to the Japanese public but also to people around the world to ease their anxiety.
What the international community views as the single biggest problem is the government's delay in notifying countries near Japan of the release of water containing low levels of radioactive materials into the Pacific Ocean from the crippled nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture.
However, water contaminated with higher levels of radiation, which is far more dangerous than the released water, was building up at the accident site. Some of that water was already leaking into the sea.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the nuclear plant, said it had to discharge water contaminated with lower levels of radioactive substances, which had already filled storage tanks, into the sea to plug leaks and create storage space for the highly radioactive water.
The discharge of low-level radioactive water into the sea itself may have been an inevitable emergency measure.
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Discharge decision a surprise
However, the Foreign Ministry reported it to countries around the world by fax and e-mail two minutes after the actual release started.
We understand the strong criticism voiced by Japan's neighbors, such as South Korea and Russia, that they did not receive any prior notice.
The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, like the foreign governments, also received no advance notice. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry was notified of the release just before it was announced to the public.
The government's failure to notify its own ministries of a policy decision as important as discharging the contaminated water suggests its crisis management system is not functioning properly.
At a recent meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, one member country after another expressed concern over Japan's release of the radioactive water into the sea.
The government raised the provisional severity level of the nuclear accident to Level 7, the most severe on the International Nuclear Event Scale, up from Level 5, on Tuesday, more than a month after the crisis began. This incurred foreign media criticism that the government may have initially underestimated the seriousness of the accident.
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This is not Chernobyl
However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima plant is not comparable to the only other Level 7 incident until now, the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident in the former Soviet Union, which caused a large amount of damage.
In terms of information disclosure, the Fukushima plant accident is different from the Chernobyl case, in which the international community denounced Soviet authorities for trying to hide the accident itself.
After clarifying procedures and measures to bring the crisis under control, the government must continue to provide accurate information to the international community, which has been supporting Japan.
This will be effective in calming overreactions to the Fukushima plant accident in some countries.
People around the world are still offering their generous support to Japan, which was stricken with both the massive earthquake and the nuclear crisis. So far, a total of over 170 countries, regions and international organizations have offered assistance to Japan.
This indicates that cooperation with the international community will become increasingly important in dealing with the Fukushima plant accident.
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