Accident Cleanup Costs Rising to 35-80 Trillion Yen in 40 Years

In March 2017, JCER calculated that the final cost of disposal after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant could potentially balloon to nearly 70 trillion yen. After the passage of two years, we have attempted a recalculation based on the limited information available from hearings with stakeholders and others. As a result, we found that there was a risk that the cost would exceed 80 trillion yen due to the increase in contaminated water. We also carried out a preliminary calculation for the so-called “confinement-managing” scenario where decommissioning is temporarily postponed without removing the melted nuclear fuel debris. It showed that the scenario would limit total costs to around 35 trillion yen by 2050 (subsequent disposal costs are undecided). Eight years have passed since the accident, and JCER thinks that it is now time to decide how to deal with nuclear power in the medium- to long-term energy plan.