Claims from the damage to Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi and Fukushima Dai-ni nuclear power plants are expected to be small.

UK commercial insurer Chaucer has confirmed it is part of Lloyd’s Nuclear Syndicate 1176, which provided coverage for the plant’s operator Tokyo Electric Power Company, but the insurer did not provide property damage or business interruption cover for these two plants.

It did provide property coverage for a third nuclear plant at Onagawa owned by Tohuku Electric Power Company, but damage by earthquakes and tsunami was excluded.

Chaucer says it is not expecting “any significant insured loss” from the crisis at the plants.

Bermuda-based Nuclear Electric Insurance (NEI) has confirmed it provides reinsurance for the Japanese Atomic Energy Insurance Pool, which has $US1.25 billion ($1.25 billion) of cover.

But this policy has earthquake, volcanic eruption and tsunami exclusions so NEI says it has no exposure to the crisis.

According to the World Nuclear Association, operators of nuclear power plants are liable for any damage caused by them, regardless of fault.

But under the Japanese Nuclear Act of 1961, the operators of the plants are not liable for any damage arising from a “grave natural disaster of an exceptional nature”.

As the problems with Fukushima Dai-ichi continue, insurers have not started on assessing their financial implications from the crisis.

Problems with the plant’s number three reactor are now causing concern as engineers consider releasing more radioactive material into the atmosphere.

The reactor, which contains highly toxic plutonium, reached a temperature of 300ºC, but this has since stabilised after seawater was pumped in to cool it.

On a more positive note, engineers have connected power cables to numbers one, five and six reactors to switch cooling pumps back on.

Number two reactor, where a number of explosions occurred last week, may have cracked and vented radioactive gases, according to Japanese reports.

The Japanese Government has now confirmed the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant will be scrapped once the crisis is over. But if engineers are unable to cool any of the reactors, they will have to be entombed in concrete to prevent further radiation leaks.