TOKYO (Reuters)—Japan may cap Tokyo Electric Power's liability to as little as $23.6 billion for damages stemming from its crippled nuclear plant, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, citing a draft plan being considered by the plant operator and the government.

Shares of the company also known as TEPCO jumped 9.6%, while Kansai Electric and other utilities fell as the newspaper said they may be asked to shoulder some of the compensation costs under the draft plan.

The plan is designed to ease worries in the financial market over the fate of Tokyo Electric, which is the country's largest corporate bond issuer and whose shares are widely held by financial institutions, the newspaper said.

The company has yet to determine the extent of the damage from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, but Bank of America-Merrill Lynch had estimated TEPCO could face compensation claims of more than $130 billion.

"It's too early to tell the fate of TEPCO at this moment, buying or even selling could be very speculative," said Yuuki Sakurai, CEO of Fukoku Capital Management.

"It's still very uncertain in terms of how far the government will go in supporting TEPCO. I think the general feeling is that might be a natural disaster, but some part of it is human error. And most people want to see TEPCO punished for the human error," he said.

Nothing decided

In a statement, Tokyo Electric said what was reported by Yomiuri was not something disclosed by the company and nothing has been decided.

Separately, the company said its president, Masataka Shimizu, would hold a news conference at 0600 GMT on Wednesday.

Under the plan, Tokyo Electric's liability would be capped at 2 trilllion yen to 3.8 trillion yen ($23.57 billion and $44.78 billion) and the company, Asia's largest utility, would pay 100 billion yen to 200 billion yen ($1.18 billion and $2.36 billion) annually for 15 years from its profits, the newspaper said.

The plan calls for other power firms to contribute to a fund that would shoulder up to 2.7 trillion yen ($31.82 billion) of compensation payouts, with the remaining damages to be handled by the government, Yomiuri said.

The utilities, including Tokyo Electric, would contribute to the fund in proportion to the number of reactors they own. This could come to about 30 billion yen to 50 billion yen ($353.6 million to $589.3 million) for each reactor, the newspaper said.

The draft plan likely will face hurdles including opposition from shareholders of other utilities such as Kansai Electric, which has 11 reactors and could be asked to contribute as much as 550 billion yen ($6.48 billion) under the plan, the paper said.

Losing value

Shares of the regional power monopoly have lost roughly 80% of their value since the disaster amid growing uncertainty over its viability given the prospect of staggering amount of compensation.

Media have reported a variety of ideas floated by government officials, including outright nationalization of Tokyo Electric and a spin-off of the Fukushima nuclear plant into an entity to handle the accident and compensation.

"We think extraordinary losses will total 554 billion yen ($6.53 billion) (in the year ended in March), for the costs of scrapping the Fukushima Daiichi plant and bringing thermal power plants back on line and 2 trillion yen ($23.57 billion) in (the current financial year) for the costs of damage compensation to the local community," Tomohiro Jikihara, an analyst at JP Morgan, said in a note.

On March 11, a magnitude 9 earthquake and a massive tsunami tore through Tokyo Electric's Fukushima Daiichi facility, 150 miles north of Tokyo, causing radiation leaks in the world's worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.