[UPDATED] A government panel in Japan late last week said that the cleanup costs at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that experienced a triple-unit meltdown in March 2011 had escalated to an estimated 22 trillion yen or $188 billion in U.S. currency. The estimated cost of decommissioning, separate from the total cost, has grown from $20 billion to $70 billion, the panel said.
The new estimate released by the Economic Trade and Industry Ministry (METI) was attributed to rising labor and construction costs. The panel also warned that the cost could rise as new methods of removing radioactive fuel from the three heavily damaged reactors were developed.
The high price was also attributed to the use of robots, which are being developed specifically for the Fukushima Daiichi plant, some for surveying the damage and others for tackling debris removal and other tasks.
The head of the panel, Kunio Ito, a professor of commerce at Hitotsubashi University, said that the estimates for decommissioning used the Three Mile Island clean up in the United States as a model. That cleanup cost close to $1 billion and included the removal of 136 tons of melted fuel. The Fukushima Daiichi clean up involves six times as much fuel that needs to be removed, the Shanghai Daily reported.
Reuters quoted METI Minister Hiroshige Seko as saying “unforeseen factors means there is a chance they (costs) could go higher.”