LEAD: Japan utility seeks 8.8 billion dollars more to pay nuke claims

Dec 27, 2011, 10:29 GMT

Tokyo - The Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) on Tuesday asked the government for another 689.4 billion yen (8.84 billion dollars) to help it pay compensation claims filed in the wake of the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

The utility had already asked for 1.01 trillion yen, and it received 891 billion yen from the government's Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund in November.

TEPCO, which produces nearly a third of Japan's electricity, has been struggling since a March 11 earthquake and tsunami swamped its Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, shutting down its cooling systems, causing meltdowns in three of its six reactors and releasing radioactive materials.

About 160,000 residents nearby were evacuated and have yet to return home.

The power supplier faces tens of billions of dollars in compensation claims, leading to a rise in speculation that it would eventually be nationalized.

Its additional claim was made a day after an independent investigative panel raked TEPCO over the coals for not being prepared for the disaster at its nuclear plant on the coast 250 kilometres north-east of Tokyo and for failing to observe emergency plans it did have in place.

It also criticized TEPCO for saying the disaster was unforeseeable and, therefore, it could not prepare for it. Given the disastrous consequences, TEPCO had a responsibility to plan for it, the panel said. 'Even if it is a phenomenon with a very low probability of occurring, it does not mean that you can ignore it,' its report said.

TEPCO admitted Tuesday, 'In hindsight, the steps we had taken were not sufficient' but objected to the committee's finding that it could have prepared for a disaster the magnitude of the one nine months ago.

A TEPCO study from 2008 found that a tsunami more than 10 metres high, the size of the wave that hit the Fukushima plant, was possible, but the utility did not make preparations for such a disaster because it described the study as 'hypothetical' and 'without scientific basis.'

TEPCO shut down 15 of its 17 nuclear reactors after the March disaster and saw its production costs rise as it had to turn to thermal power stations to produce electricity.

Japanese media reported last week that the liability fund might buy stock in the company to keep it solvent, a move that would effectively nationalize it.

TEPCO raised its request for government aid to cover compensation claims after the government raised the number of people eligible for payments to 1.5 million.