As the Tokyo Electric Power Company was begging the Japanese government for money after the Fukushima disaster, it found nearly CDN$200 million to contribute to a nuclear-power lobby group.

Japanese journalists Satoshi Otani and Yo Noguchi revealed this in the Asahi Shimbun newpaper.

The Fukushima power plant was crippled by an earthquake on March 11, 2011, resulting in massive leaks of radiation and an evacuation of the area.

The whopping fee to the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan was for the fiscal year beginning in April 2011, according to the newspaper.

There are reportedly 10 regional utilities in the federation, which is the nuclear-power industry’s lobbying group.

The newspaper reported that the fee is included in the company’s operating costs, which had been approved prior to the disaster.

A subsequent review determined that it wasn’t necessary to do this, so the fee was not included in the approved operating costs for 2012-13 fiscal year.