The company behind the continuing nuclear saga in Japan has offered up village governments affected by its radiation snafu condolence money. It works out to about $12 US per person. Whether or not that amount will be sufficient can not be determined at this early stage, but some of the cities offered the money has refused it.
On Tuesday, April 5, 2011, Tokyo Electric Company starting paying out monies to local governments affected to aid people from the vicinity of its stricken plant. There are more than 11,000 dead and some 16,000 missing because of the March 11 earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Since then, wide swaths of area have been declared non-inhabitable because the Fukushima plant's reactors have failed and continue to spew radioactive materials in the ocean water, the subterranean water table and in the land.
"We are still in discussion as to what extent we will pay on our own and to what extent we will have assistance from the government," TEPCO executive vice-president Takashi Fujimoto told reporters at the latest news conference.
Fujimoto said TEPCO offered 20 million yen ($238,000) in condolence money to towns near the reactors whose residents were forced to evacuate. Assuming the company will be able to financially survive the ever-growing damage, TEPCO faces a huge bill for the damage caused by its crippled reactors. According to its lawyers, it must first assess the extent of damage before paying actual compensation.
