The Japanese government agreed Friday to help the operator of a damaged nuclear plant pay compensation to victims of the crisis caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, media reports said. A new body will be set up to help make payments to those affected by the disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Co's (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Kyodo News reported. "Acknowledging the social responsibility of promoting nuclear power with plant operators, the government will offer support to Tokyo Electric on the basis that it will seek to keep the public burden to the minimum," the government said. Company president Masataka Shimizu said TEPCO would get ready to make "fair and swift" compensation payments. He said he expected legislation soon to implement the scheme. The planned insitution is to help pay public money into TEPCO to prevent it collapsing under debt. The government will finance the planned institution through a bond and it will also get contributions from other nuclear operators, as dap reported. TEPCO is due to write off an estimated 1 trillion yen (12.35 billion dollars) in this financial year. The company will need a similar amount to buy gas, oil and coal to fire conventional power stations to replace generating capacity lost at the Fukushima nuclear plant. TEPCO agreed to implement extensive cost-cutting measures in return for the state aid. After the quake, several reactors overheated at the plant, leading to fires and explosions which have left the facility leaking radioactive material ever since. TEPCO is facing trillions of yen (tens of billions of dollars) in compensation claims from displaced residents and ruined businesses near the plant in north-east Japan.
