Safety measure costs after Japan's nuclear plant accident rise to at least 6.606 trillion yen

A survey of 11 Japanese electric power companies shows that the total cost of safety measures required for nuclear plants to meet new regulatory standards following the Fukushima Daiichi accident has reached at least 6.606 trillion yen. Affected by rising prices, this figure has increased slightly from the previous year. About half of the surveyed companies said that rising costs of materials, equipment, and construction have pushed up related expenses, and the total may continue to rise in the future.

After the Fukushima Daiichi accident, Japan implemented new nuclear regulatory standards requiring plants to strengthen earthquake and tsunami protection and improve severe accident response measures. Related costs mainly include investments in seawalls, emergency power supplies, filtered venting equipment, and seismic reinforcement.

The survey shows that Chugoku Electric Power raised its 2025 safety measure cost estimate by 50 billion yen, pushing the combined total for the 11 power companies to 6.606 trillion yen. This scale is approximately 6.6 times the initial estimate made in 2013.

Tokyo Electric Power Company and Japan Atomic Power Company (JAPC) did not provide specific figures in this survey. The statistics therefore continue to use previously published estimates from the two companies, and the actual total may still be revised upward.