TOKYO: Shares in Tokyo Electric Power, the embattled operator of a stricken nuclear power plant, surged Wednesday on a report other Japanese power companies may be asked to share its compensation burden.
TEPCO shares closed up 11.55 percent at 502 yen after the Yomiuri Shimbun reported the utility's liabilities would be limited to between 2-3.8 trillion yen ($23-45 billion).
Shares in TEPCO plunged to historic lows last week on doubts about the firm's ability to manage the crisis at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the worst atomic accident since Chernobyl in 1986.
The utility has yet to fully determine costs associated with a crisis that remains unresolved more than four weeks after the March 11 tsunami crippled the plant's reactor cooling systems, prompting partial meltdowns and explosions.
Some analysts have put the bill at around 10 trillion yen ($118 billion).
In a mutual aid system modelled on the compensation scheme of Three Mile Island nuclear accident, Japan's other power utilities would shoulder 30-50 billion yen per one nuclear reactor that they own, the daily said.
When the total compensation exceeds the amount paid by the power companies, the Japanese government will fully cover the rest, eyeing special legislation in order to realise the compensation scheme, according the report.
The government on Wednesday denied the report.
"I have not been briefed about such a plan," top government spokesman Yukio Edano told a press conference. "The government is not considering it as a specific plan."
Tens of thousands of people in a 20 kilometre (12 mile) radius around the plant have been evacuated, leaving behind businesses, homes and livelihoods.
The plant northeast of Tokyo has emitted radioactive materials into the air, contaminating farm produce and drinking water and sea water, and triggering bans on the import of some Japanese goods overseas.
Amid growing unease about water contamination, Japan last week imposed a legal limit for radioactive iodine in seafood after elevated levels were discovered in fish caught off Ibaraki prefecture, south of the crippled plant.
At a press conference on Wednesday TEPCO president Masataka Shimizu said the company will continue doing its "utmost" to stabilise the plant and pledged to "support disaster-hit residents and supply stable power".
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