The collapse of Japan’s nuclear power industry continues to reveal crippling flaws in the system that have nothing to do with reactor technology. Because of poor oversight by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, electric power companies have not put aside enough money to decommission their plants, creating a $1.71-billion (and rising) shortfall that consumers will eventually have to cover. Funds fall short for 34 of the nation’s 50 nuclear reactors based on new safety standards that set reactor lifetimes at 40 years.
Since the Fukushima meltdowns, the utilities have set aside virtually nothing to decommission existing reactors. Not surprisingly, TEPCO has the biggest shortfall–about $767 million for 13 reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, Fukushima No. 2 plant and Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant. (This does not include the cost of cleaning up the ruined reactor sites at Fukushima, which is basically unknown.) The costs for decommissioning reactors were taken into account when electricity rates were set, but the utilities did not accumulate proper reserves. Always ready to play hardball, some industry insiders have proposed adding the decommissioning costs to transmission charges for generators of renewable energy when they use utilities’ power grids. That would mean that electricity producers that do not rely on nuclear power would pick up the tab for decommissioning old reactors. Such a deal.