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Loan to Tepco for Fukushima Cleanup Costs Rises to 14 Trillion Yen

posted by janrinok on Friday December 09 2016, @05:20AM   
from the dirty-money dept.

takyon writes:

Tepco is being loaned more interest-free money to cleanup after the Fukushima disaster:

Japan will increase an interest-free loan to the operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power (9501.T), by more than a third to 14 trillion yen ($123 billion), a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The increase in the loan from 9 trillion yen is to cover the costs for compensation and decontamination areas around the plant, according to the source.

[...] The disaster is likely to cost 22.6 trillion yen ($199 billion), more than double an earlier government estimate.

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Original Submission

• Re:Nuclear reactors (Score: 3, Interesting) by Aiwendil on Saturday December 10 2016, @09:51AM

  by Aiwendil (531) on Saturday December 10 2016, @09:51AM (#439636) Journal

  (Btw, thanks for a great discussion)
  Adding filters and/or hydrgen recombiners would have been cheaper than a complete replacement of the reactors (and would have been in the era of sane safety).

  In the context of japan each extra nuclear reactors save a lot if money (due to displacing imported fossil fuel) - so actually replacing a nuclear reactor would be both costly to propose and would just end up with the old reactors still running until end of life (always been amazed japan doesn't go the korean or french route in regards to nuclear)

  - devices to catalytically react hydrogen with oxygen, thereby preventing hydrogen explosions

  Hydrogen recombiners - yup, great mitigation system.

  - larger containment structures, like those at typical nuclear stations

  Would required a complete rebuild of the reactor. Also, the BWR Mark I was the typical containment at the time the Fukushima I 1-4 reactors where built.

  - a higher sea wall, or putting the station at a higher altitude

  Plant-wide safety, but yeah - this would have worked as long as long as an even higher wave didn't hit

  - putting the station in a less earthquake-prone place

  The reactors handled the earthquake just fine, it was the water that was an issue

  One really cheap option that would have worked would have been if they had sited the generators in a submersible building, sited generators _inside_ the reactorbuildings (would been considered less safe however), or have had the major powerlines underground (which is a great mitigation against lightningstrikes, fires and typhoons as well).

  The filters I mention are the ABB-designed Multi Venturi Scrubber System ("haverifilter") - interesting enough ABB tried to sell them internatiinally (incl to the japanese) in the early 1990s. (A more expensive but similar option is the vacuumbuilding use for CANDUs).

  Oooh, the filters you describe being considred seems like the MVSS mentioned above.

  Kinda sad that we sold off ASEA/ABB (now part of the Westinghouse-division of Toshiba) - their nuclear division made some seriously interesting things (BWR90+ for instance).

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+1
  Interesting=1, Total=1
  Extra 'Interesting' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		3