Japan Fukushima Cost Seen Almost Doubling to $188 Billion
- Reactor decommissiong costs expand fourfold to 8 trillion yen
- Tokyo Electric’s credit line increased to 13.5 trillion yen
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Cleaning up the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, the world’s worst atomic accident since Chernobyl, will cost almost twice as much as originally expected as decommissioning expenses increase, according to Japan government estimates.
Total costs will rise to 21.5 trillion yen ($188 billion), up from a previous estimate of 11 trillion yen, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a statement given to reporters in Tokyo on Friday. The cost of decommissioning the reactors will increase fourfold to about 8 trillion yen, while compensation payments will rise to 7.9 trillion yen.