Scrapping crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to cost ¥220 billion annually: source

Work to scrap the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant and deal with radioactive water buildup at the site is expected to cost around ¥220 billion ($2 billion) annually over the three-year period from fiscal 2018, a source said Thursday. It is the first time that Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. and the state-backed Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corp., or NDF, have provided an estimate of annual costs for cleaning up the Fukushima No. 1 complex, more than seven years after the tsunami-triggered nuclear crisis. Tepco and the NDF will soon submit the financial plan to the government to gain approval from industry minister Hiroshige Seko. The NDF, established after the Fukushima crisis started, holds a majority stake in Tepco, and instructs the utility on how to effectively decommission the plant. The outlay plan comes as total costs to scrap the nuclear plant have ballooned.