Japanese Nuclear Industry’s Back End Costs

Extract from article printed in Nuke Info Tokyo No.98 by Masako Sawai, CNIC (Nov,03-Feb04)

Total cost of reprocessing 11 trillion yen

In November the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan stated that total back-end costs amount to about 19 trillion yen (18.8 tril.). This includes the construction, operation, repair, dismantling and waste management of Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant, plus the MOX plant and the transport, storage and disposal of radioactive waste returned from overseas. Regarding the reprocessing plant, so far only the construction costs have been released. These construction costs alone keep going up and have now reached 2.14 trillion yen.

The total cost calculations for the plant are based on it operating for 40 years from 2006 then taking 32 years to dismantle. In total, the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant alone consumes 11 trillion yen, or 60% of the total back-end costs. However this is only a very approximate minimal figure. Future increases are inevitable. In regard to this enormous figure, Japanese power companies say that they have already reached the limit of the money they are able to set aside from their own funds and that they will increase charges and also request supplements through the tax system.