Japan finds costs ballooning to dismantle Fukushima nuclear plant

The choice was to clean up or abandon like Chernobyl. At least Japan took the high road and decided to clean up at unimaginable price. Speaks volumes about using nuclear energy. When things are going right it might be the best thing but if not, you're in unknown territory with end result being huge loss in lives and astronomical cost to rectify. Hence the choice of solar and wind makes sense.

Learn from the UK experience with dismantling Sellafield/ Calder Hall. 8-10 times over budget, time extended from 20 to nearly 70 years, and still not decommissioning the cold war relics such as the 'Dirty 30' pool, which is comparable in radioactivity to the 'pressure vessel rooms' at Fukushima.

And that was from a power plant that did not explode and melt down, but shut down regularly.

When you have the same yakuka backed construction guys that are doing the olymics then you are certain to have costs increase

Boron can be used to keep the melted reactor corium from heating up. Along with the radioisotope absorbing action of volcanic clay both should be utilized in the entombment process of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Utrack: Entombment was and is the most economical way to handle Nuclear Meltdowns. The cost to human health is too great to not entomb

They'd probably like to. But just covering it over may not work. They're dumping water on the cores to keep them cool, and they can't get all the water back (unless they've stopped since last March).

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/03/five-years-after-meltdown-it-safe-live-near-fukushima

Five years after the meltdown, is it safe to live near Fukushima? - Mar. 2, 2016 ... The biggest challenge at present, Ono says, is contaminated water. Cooling water is continuously poured over the melted cores of units 1, 2, and 3 to keep the fuel from overheating and melting again. The water drains into building basements, where it mixes with groundwater. To reduce the amount of contaminated water seeping into the ocean, TEPCO collects and stores it in 10-meter-tall steel tanks. They now fill nearly every corner of the grounds, holding some 750,000 tons of water. ...

Realistic estimations considering it will take more than 100 years are not possible. But definitely more than 100 BN that will have to be paid by our grand-grand children.

Entombment was and is the most economical way to handle Nuclear Meltdowns. The cost to human health is too great to not entomb

TEPCO, borrow money from Japanese gov't. Clean up Asap. Plan profitable energy distribution business instead of costly nuclear energy.

Tokyo: Seize TEPCOmand make it as public utility company. Use it as Solar energy electricity distribution business. It will be profitable to Tokyo unlike oil or coal, sunshineis free.

Looks like they meant to write, '..... nearly 10 trillion yen or $100 billion.'

Maybe the next country this happens to will learn from it and go large early.

Like, dig a semicircular moat to cut the site off from groundwater entirely.

And, dig the reactor site out with payloaders rigged with mirrors, no digital parts blastable by radiation..

Close off the forebay and pump it out a la the farmland by the Zuider Zee.

100M-yen payouts to Tepco executives willing to go kamikaze and get their hands dirty til collapsing.

Giant fiberglass cocoon lifted with helicopters running kilometer-long kevlar lines.

Maybe obliqueweapons could help here with some ideas.

Remember - this mess it to be cleaned-up in advance of the 2020 Olympics. Wow, 2016 is almost over.

Remember it was NEVER said that this would be cleaned up before the Olympics, not once, in fact it has been stated it will take decades.

Now that the writing is on the wall for the demise of nuclear power, the companies involved and the government want to make sure to maximize costs to guarantee profitability, or bolster the case for refusal to shutter them. Shuttering these plants is going to bankrupt the country, leaving them operational is eventually going to result in nuclear holocaust.

Business as usual at Japan inc.

Smith

We've all seen the ocean maps and the comments by the experts. Guess you haven't

And worse than Chernobyl? Nope not even close but you know that already. Fatalities (or lack of) isn't something you care about is it...

I am actually still pro nuclear energy.

Time to draw a line. Euthanize nuclear energy, reign in the vested interests throw that mug Abe out on his ear.

Surprise, surprise. Judt a typical 'public works' project.

And, you know who is going to foot the bill for this fiasco, don't you? The consumers, of course! TEPCO admitted this disaster was due to poor management and falsified safety reports, but nobody will be charged. They boasted about turning a profit last year after increasing electricity tariffs by 10%. Now, the government owns 51% of TEPCO giving them access to public funds to pay for their mismanagement. The clean up operation has followed a similar pattern with mismanagement, labor scandals and money wasted on frivolous and untested fixes. And, they still do not have any idea what they are going to do with the ever increasing tens of thousands of tons of highly contaminated water stored in tanks on the site. The tanks are only designed to last five years, which means the original ones are just about at the end of their lifespan. Furthermore, none of these storage tanks are designed to survive a tsunami and they are all stored near sea level around the plant. If another tsunami were to occur it would wash the whole lot of it into the pacific. Perhaps this is their hope.

Probably a whole lot more than that. The public will be on the hook for it, not TEPCO. By design

A good a reason as any to cancel the 2020 Olympics!

Nuclear power is a huge money loser and would not survive, even without the Fukushima disaster, without government welfare. The LDP should be booted out of power for creating TEPCO and then letting it apply criminally weak management of the Fukushima site over decades. Until it all came to an end. Anyone seen the radiation map of Fukushima toxic dumping in the Pacific? Basically the whole Pacific ocean has been affected. And there is no idea of when the cleanup effort will stop radiation from leaking into the ocean. None. Five plus years on now. Yes, pro nuke drones, Spin this one. Show us how a $100 billion tab makes nuclear energy the best cost alternative. And guess who gets to pay that bill, taxpayers who have consistently voted against nuclear power in the country.

Clean, cheap, and under control! You guys see the ocean maps of pollution from Fukushima? MUCH worse than Chernobyl already, and not even near contained despite all the lip-service to the contrary.

Earth to Japan, Fukushima is now a toxic money pit at the nuke plant, and Yubaru, HALF, we will be extremely lucky if this """""ESTIMATE""""" covers even 10% & that to me is very wishful!!

And with so many old nuke plants still around & Japan where HUGE earthquakes & possible tsunami are a GIVEN, toss in a few volcanoes for good measure, not even factoring the incompetence in management & just imagine if Japan DOESNT start decommissioning what this country could be like in 100-200hundred years from now.

It IS very likely Japan will be dotted with nuke plant disasters & accidents/miss-management problems all over & we will be waiting for the technology to deal with it

Japan, this is simple nuclear power in Japan is an extremely BAD IDEA, that should be obvious, but alas....

I'd like to see how the money is being spent. It comes down to labor, materials and machinery. I think any government project - especially one like this - should have itemized budgets available for all to see.

"Nuclear; the safe, clean energy" (tm)

TEPCO was still trying to determine what exactly the decommissioning effort might involve.....And yet they can't wait to turn other reactors on again....

Of course because TEPCO is milking it as outrageous as it sounds, TEPCO is where all that money is going and we are not how greedy they are.

Who'da thunk!

If it cost $5billion to build a new fish market (with a multitude of problems), what were the chances of cleaning up the most dangerous site on the planet with the technology yet to be developed, for a song.

$100 billion sounds mightily cheap spread over half a century.

Go Tepco, Go Jiminto!

Remember - this mess it to be cleaned-up in advance of the 2020 Olympics. Wow, 2016 is almost over.

Considering all the other cash cows that the government has given birth to over the decades with all their "estimates" it not surprising that this one is exploding as well.

I would truly be surprised if THIS estimate is even half of what it eventually ends up costing.

Even if it were to take 30 years at an estimated annual cost at 300 billion yen ($3 billion), both conservative projections, the cost would be nearly 1 billion yen or $100 billion.

Something isn't right there. You might wanna get the abacus back out.

Tell me again how nuclear power is cheap and safe.