Japan Utility Paying $1B to Nuclear Plant Evacuees

The Associated Press reports:

The owner of Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear plant will pay an estimated $1 billion (88 billion yen) to thousands of residents who evacuated homes near the radiation-leaking plant and don't yet know when they can return.

Compensation Tokyo Electric Power Co. ultimately may pay for the world's second-worst nuclear disaster is expected to be trillions of yen.

Japan's Cabinet last week approved a bill to help TEPCO meet the massive costs, and parliamentary approval is pending. It would establish a fund from public money and contributions from utilities and special government bonds.

The estimate TEPCO released Wednesday is in addition to 50 billion yen paid in preliminary compensation to 50,000 households in late May.