ABSTRACT
A major earthquake occurred in the northeast of Japan on March 11, 2011. A tsunami hit the area in which the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant was located, causing a loss of the electric power required to control the reactor and consequently triggering a hydrogen explosion. This chapter aims to define cost and benefit, respectively, as the monetary expenditure by government and the value of recovered capital services. It presents an estimate of decontamination benefit. The chapter describes the differences in the aim and definition of “decontamination” between the government’s documents and our study. It shows the empirical framework including the operational definition of cost and benefit. The chapter introduces the estimation method and the data sources. It proposes a method to estimate the benefits and costs of a decontamination project, with limited scope. The chapter focuses on the latter due to the sheer uncertainty of health risks.
