How much will the total cost be for the Fukushima crisis after it is all said and done,  the ‘cleanup’ is finished and all of the lawsuits are done? In terms of cleanup and payments to citizens affected, environmental mitigation, loss of income, loss of lands, loss of homes, loss of nuclear power plants, and lawsuits,  what would the total be? In the following video, a Japanese government subcommittee will attempt to put a number to the disaster. 

According to one Tokyo professor, the total cost may be MORE than 10 Trillion Dollars, which is the equivalent of the total budget of Japan for the next ten years. The Chernobyl disaster is said by some to have cost approximately 500 Billion Dollars, without adding in costs for the new sarcophogus. By the way, the nuclear industry NEVER pays for the damages caused by their messes. Guess who dose pay? Taxpayers, meaning you and I and your neighbors. 

Corporations always seem to find a way to transfer their losses to taxpayers, but somehow they always get to keep all of their profits.  

So, how did the professor arrive at the 10 Trillion number? Source: http://enenews.com/japan-based-author-fukushima-damage-so-great-japan-govt-would-go-well-beyond-bankruptcy-up-to-10-trillion-says-tokyo-prof-equal-to-10-years-of-national-budget

If all of the nuclear power plants stay shut down, each one will cost Japan about 20 Billion, so multiply that by the 50 plus plants that may never start up again, if the Japanese citizens have anything to say about it. That is at least 1 Trillion, or more, if one factors in decommissioning, and waste disposal, storage and other costs. 

People still have to man these plants, no matter what happens. No one can walk away from these plants. In addition, Japan has hundreds of tons of plutonium squirreled away, ready to make into super dangerous MOX fuel or into nuclear weapons. Storing and guarding this now useless fuel is also a huge cost. 

Now we must add the value of approximately 8,000 square miles and all of the houses, crops, businesses and other infrastructure built into it, that is now contaminated and useless, as well as worthless. (This is ignoring the massive ocean contamination of up to 80 times the 8,000 square miles on land and the associated costs.) http://enenews.com/japan-nuclear-expert-almost-8000-square-miles-like-radiation-control-area-after-fukushima

Of course the government is saying almost NOTHING is contaminated and everyone is invited to move back home, despite having radiation levels ten times as high as the equivalent mandatory Chernobyl evacuation zones. They may have looked at the costs, and decided that it is easier to pretend no accident happened, and no radiation got out. 

Realistically, Japan will have to add the compensation paid monthly to all of the tens or hundreds of thousands of individuals that got thrown out of work, thrown out of business, and who may yet sue to get compensated for all of those losses. 

Then Japan will have to add the lifetime value of all of the people who will get sick, die and suffer due to Fukushima, which Arnie Gunderson estimates will total 1 million cancers or even more. 

There are healthcare costs associated with all of this sickness and cancer as well, from birth to death and beyond. Arnie Gunderson says that 1 million people got exposed to radiation, and he estimates the cost of this over their lifetime will be 1 Trillion Dollars. 

Arnie also gets into the equation of safety versus cost of nuclear. He says this is always a tradeoff, where safety is sacrificed. To keep nuclear power affordable means we will have to continue to sacrifice safety, and that means we will continue to have accidents. Arnie says we can expect  about one MAJOR accident every six  years. 

The failure rate of the nuclear industry in  terms of a percentage is 6 plants out of 400 total nuclear plants around the world, which is about 1.5% failure rate total. Would you fly an airplane or drive a plane that has this rate of failure? We would have fully loaded jumbo jets falling out of the sky EVERY DAY at this rate of failure in the airline industry. 

Here is a list of nuclear accidents; 

And this is just the tip of the iceberg… After going through the above list, it becomes much easier to see how the professor could come up with a 10 Trillion Dollar figure. 

Before adding up all of the costs of the earthquake and the nuclear disaster, the national debt of Japan was over 220% of GDP. 

Professor Tanaka mentions a 200% figure in his video below, but this is a VERY conservative figure, not factoring in many future debts caused by Fukushima… 

 By contrast, Greece has a national debt of ONLY 138% of GDP. They say Greece is in BIG trouble, with no way out of bankruptcy.  They keep saying on the mass media spin machine, that Greece has no way out, and it is headed for a financial collapse, resulting in bankruptcy. Greece has riots in the street, because of the austerity cuts that are being imposed on retirees, and on people. 

How in the world will Japan make it through this financial tsunami that is coming down on the whole nation, unless the Japanese refuse to pay anyone anything in terms of compensation or debts that they owe everyone else? 

Maybe they can start printing up Trillions of Yen, and create massive amounts of money out of thin air? For a graph that only shows the debt of Japan up to a few years ago, click on; http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?c=ja&v=143

Another interesting aspect of this twin nuclear and natural disaster is that the ports and fishing vessels were destroyed by the tsunami part of the disaster. In addition, the Pacific Ocean was contaminated with radiation, so fishing is no longer an option in large sections of ocean off of Fukushima.