Nuclear Power and Fukushima Finances 4

Building Boxes, No Alternate Funding Source

In the late 1970s, the towns of Tomioka and Naraha went on a building spree. Recreation halls, lodging centers, roads, schools, sewers ... all built with "Electric Power Money." Tomioka and Naraha share Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant. Younger residents urged them to think 20 or 30 years in the future - but the office directing regional development using the grants didn't listen.

In Tomioka, the town budget ballooned from 1.3 billion yen in 1974 to 4.6 billion yen in 1982. Available only during the 5 years of construction, Power Source Location Promotion Grants could only be used for building public facilities and roads. After the plant was operational, these construction-related funds fell off. In 1993, Tomioka's they were less than 1% of their 1982 peak.

To remedy this situation, Long Term Development Grants (原子力発電施設等立地地域長期発展対策交付金) were set up. The result was to leave no escape from taking grant money. In fiscal 2010, the eight towns and villages in Futaba County received about 6 billion yen from the Three Power Source Laws, and about 1.3 billion yen from nuclear fuel taxes.

Reactors 1, 2, 3 and 4 at Fukushima Daiichi are ruined and will be scrapped. If the remaining six reactors, Numbers 5 and 6 at Fukushima Daiichi and Numbers 1-4 at Fukushima Daini, are not restarted, Futaba towns and villages will lose all of these funds. No replacement sources have been identified.

Futaba area officials are placing the onus to find new sources on the prefecture government. "The prefecture made scrapping all of the reactors part of its recovery plan, so needn't they also show alternate funding sources?"

Previous post in series: Nuclear Power and Fukushima Finances 3


Note about series:


Fukushima Minpo is the oldest and most established newspaper in Fukushima Prefecture. The series of articles on which this post is based explores the financial side of being host to electric power plants. I am excerpting it for this blog because it is written by and for the people most affected by the Fukushima Daiichi accident. This perspective is rare, if not nonexistent, in English reporting about the accident.


Comments are welcome if they constructively add insight to the perspective of this series. Unless submitted by residents of Fukushima or people otherwise directly affected by the accident, advocacy comments will be deleted without acknowledgement.


Source:
Fukushima Minpo, 「【攻防　電力マネー4】「箱もの」建設推進　代替財源見つからず, "[Offense & Defense: Electric Power Money 4] Building Boxes - No Alternate Funding Sources," 2011-12-23, http://www.minpo.jp/pub/topics/jishin2011/2011/12/post_2825.html, Accessed 2012-1-13