The Bad thing about Plutonium

One of the bad things about plutonium is that it stays radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years. So, anyplace radiated seriously with plutonium won't be safe for hundreds of thousands of years.

The second bad thing about plutonium is that it is 2 million times more toxic to all life on earth than uranium is.

So when plutonium is found in the soil and water and sea around Reactor number  three and the Fukushima Nuclear Power plant it is very very serious. It is one of the many reasons that the Japanese Government is considering nationalizing the Fukushima Nuclear plant and Tepco and now considers this the most serious situation since World War II  in Japan.

Begin Quote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/business/global/30tepco.html?src=busln
“If you were the government, would you let it (Tepco) go bust?” said Paul J. Scalise, a former financial analyst who is writing a book on Japan’s electric power system. “I think the answer is no. The effect on the larger economy at a critical time would be too great.”
Estimates in the Japanese news media had already put the damage from the radiation leak to local homes, businesses and farms in the trillions of yen, even without knowing if anyone would suffer health damage. But it is impossible to calculate what the ultimate cost to the company will be. That is partly because the crisis appears to be far from over, and partly because it is not clear how much of the liability will actually be Tepco’s to bear.end quote.

So, if the liability from Tepco is already in the trillions, there is likely no way any insurance company or even group of insurance companies could realistically cover these losses. So, the likelihood of the government stepping in to save the company is likely for sure at this point or in the near future. Also, I'm not sure just how many (or even all) of the 55 nuclear plants in Japan are owned by Tepco. So, if Japan wants to keep using the other nuclear power plants and to restart them soon after all the large earthquakes over 6.0 stop within the next year or two(or at least slow down) they would have to keep Tepco financially solvent as well in order to keep those nuclear plants solvent and working properly. Tepco Stocks have already suffered pretty heavy losses so this might be an important consideration. Likely stock in nuclear companies could now or eventually suffer worldwide as this nuclear disaster drags on.

Begin quote from second article:
Mr. Scalise said that under Japanese law governing compensation for nuclear damage, companies are liable for the cost of all nuclear accidents resulting from reactor operations except when the accidents are provoked by a “grave natural disaster of an exceptional nature or by an insurrection.” The company might plausibly seek to avoid liability altogether within that definition, he said. end quote.


So, given this aspect of Japanese law it is possible that Tepco can escape ANY liability unless negligence could be established. I think this could all get extremely complicated since this event affects businesses all around the world as big as Ford, General Motors, Chrysler even here in the U.S. because almost all cars built on earth use some Japanese electronic or other components. So, many production lines of cars are stalled around the world right now because of the rolling blackouts in regard to large Japanese companies so they cannot produce very much if at all depending upon the area. The alternative for these large companies in Japan likely would be to purchase really large diesel powered generators or purchasing the new type of fuel cells like Google uses in Silicon Valley. However, if you are using really large amounts of electricity like a factory production line  fuel cells  likely wouldn't generate enough for this. Even large diesel powered or natural gas powered electrical generators might not be cost effective and might interfere with the production companies bottom line. So, how all this will be resolved is anyone's guess. It will likely be a hodgepodge of solutions in the short term. What the long term solution will be we will all have to just wait and see.

Correction: I found that whatever the losses may be that private insurance companies together with the Japanese government likely will be able to cover the losses. Please read the following quote from the same above article:

Nicholas Benes, head of the Board Director Training Institute of Japan, said Tepco’s legal liability related to the Fukushima Daiichi plant would be covered by private and government insurance up to 120 billion yen, and even over that amount the government had wide latitude to provide financial assistance.end quote.

However, since the losses might reach into the trillions of yen, we still have to see how it all is handled.