The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant will sell assets worth more than $6 billion to raise funds to compensate victims of the country's worst nuclear crisis, Kyodo news agency has said.
Emergency workers are still struggling to lower radiation levels at the plant, which was heavily damaged by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
Operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), Japan's largest power utility, says it will also need state help to meet compensation claims from families and businesses displaced by the disaster. Access to a 20 kilometer exclusion zone around the plant is still banned.
Analysts say total compensation claims may be over $100 billion.
The JP Morgan financial services firm has estimated that TEPCO faces losses of $24.7 billion in the current financial year.
The official death toll from the March 11 twin disaster is just under 15,000, while 9,893 people remain unaccounted for.
MOSCOW, May 11 (RIA Novosti)
