CONSULTING

According to the estimation of the Board of Audit in March 2015, it will take up to 30 years for
TEPCO to repay the financial subsidies of 9 trillion yen (US$90 billion) it received from the
government. 316
Based on the information from TEPCO, the total cost of damages caused by the Fukushima disaster
has been estimated to be at 13.3 trillion yen (US$ 133 billion), based on the following items:
(1) Decommissioning and contaminated water treatment costs of 2 trillion yen. Although TEPCO
already set aside a reserve of 1 trillion yen (US$ 10 billion), the government asked the utility to
secure another 1 trillion yen (US$ 10 billion) within 10 years.
(2) Compensation costs of about 7.1 trillion yen (US$ 71 billion). The total of the legally required
compensation costs according to the latest data is about 7.7 trillion yen (US$ 77 billion), see
Table 9.
(3) Decontamination costs of 3.6 trillion yen (US$ 36 billion): The Ministry of the Environment has
estimated the decontamination cost at about 2.5 trillion yen (US$ 25 billion) and the interim
storage facilities cost at about 1.1 trillion yen (US$ 11 billion).
Fukushima vs. Chernobyl
“We knew, with certainty, with arrogant certainty, that we were in control of
the power we were playing with. We could make the forces of nature bend to our
will. There was nothing we could not do. This was the day, of course, when we
learned we were wrong.”
Sergiy Parashyn
Engineer at the Chernobyl plant
from 1977 to the day of the disaster 317
Although the Fukushima disaster in 2011 remains very serious, according to some criteria, its
effects seem to pale in comparison to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. However, it must be
noted that all of these numbers are based on modelling with large ranges of uncertainties.
According to Japan’s Science Ministry, 318 the Fukushima accident contaminated an area of
30,000 km 2 in Japan to a level above 10,000 Bq per km 2 of Cs-137. Chernobyl contaminated an area
of an estimated 1,437,000 km 2 in Europe and the former USSR above this level, a 50 times larger
area. 319 The Japanese Science Ministry also stated that 8 percent of Japan’s land area was
contaminated to this level. 320 In comparison, 37 percent of Europe was affected to the same level.
Table 10 indicates that it was not just the land areas contaminated and collective doses but also the
radionuclide amounts released to the air, and the populations affected that were larger by land
316 Board of Audit of Japan, “Report on the results of the accounting audit regarding the implementation
status of government's assistance provided to TEPCO for compensation for nuclear damage”, March 2015,
(in Japanese), see http://www.jbaudit.go.jp/pr/kensa/result/27/pdf/270323_zenbun_01.pdf, accessed
12 April 2016.
317 Miami Herald, “Ruined Chernobyl nuclear plant will remain a threat for 3,000 years”, 24 April 2016, see
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article73405857.html, accessed 23 June 2016.
318 Climate Progress, “Radiation Covers 8% of Japan, Fukushima Crisis ‘Stunting Children’s Growth’ (Though
Not Directly Due to Radiation)”, 28 November 2011, see
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2011/11/28/377120/radiation-japan-fukushima-stunting-childrens-growth/
accessed 30 June 2016.
319 Ian Fairlie, “TORCH-2016—An independent scientific evaluation of the health-related effects of the
Chernobyl nuclear disaster”, 31 March 2016, see
https://www.global2000.at/sites/global/files/GLOBAL_TORCH%202016_rz_WEB_KORR.pdf, accessed
4 June 2016.
320 Climate Progress, op. cit.
Mycle Schneider, Antony Froggatt et al. 99 World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2016