End to Japanese Nuclear Power?

SUBHEAD: Former Prime Minister Koizumi calls for end of Japanese nuclear power efforts.

By Jiji Press Staff on 3 October 2013 for The Japanese Times -
(http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0000692946)


Image above: Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Tokyo in July 2012 to demand a stop to nuclear power. From (http://www.dw.de/huge-anti-nuclear-demonstration-staged-in-tokyo/a-16099656).

Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Japan should abandon nuclear power.

“I’m calling for zero nuclear power,” he said in a speech in Nagoya.

The 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which triggered a nuclear crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 plant, should be taken as an opportunity to build a resource-recycling society without nuclear power, he said on Tuesday.

Nothing is costlier than nuclear power, Koizumi said. The consequences of a nuclear accident are enormous, and it takes 40 to 50 years to decommission a nuclear reactor, he said. The popular former leader called on the government of current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to decide early to give up nuclear power.

Japan can survive without nuclear power, Koizumi said. “The sooner, the better,” he added.

If the government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party adopt the policy of abandoning nuclear power, the move will create an encouraging atmosphere as all opposition parties are for the move, he said.



Fukushima Daiichi to be scrapped
SUBHEAD: Tepco announces it will decommission  Fukushima Daiichi #5 and #6 reactors.

By Yomiuri Shimbun on 30 September 2013 for The Japan Times -
(http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0000687045)


Fukushima Daiichi Reactor #5 and #6 were undamaged by tsunami. From (http://enformable.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Unit-56-Overview-of-a-reactor-building-from-southwest-side.jpg).

Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Naomi Hirose revealed in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun on Saturday the company’s plans to decommission the Nos. 5 and 6 reactors at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

In the interview, Hirose said the two reactors will never again be used for power generation.

The permanent shutdown of the Nos. 5 and 6 reactors was a demand made to the company by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to speed up the decommissioning work of the plant’s crippled Nos. 1-4 reactors.

As a result, all six reactors at the plant will be decommissioned.

“In absolutely no way am I considering using them [Nos. 5 and 6 reactors] as power plants,” Hirose said.

Afterward, he added: “It’s impossible to decommission them right now [because of the need to focus on the Nos. 1-4 reactors]. I’m thinking about how they [the sites of Nos. 5 and 6 reactors] can be used for the Nos. 1-4 reactors. A promising idea is to use them as training facilities.”

TEPCO filed documents to decommission the Nos. 1-4 reactors based on the Electric Utility Law in March last year. The decision to scrap all four reactors was finalized the following month.

The Nos. 5 and 6 reactors were not running at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 as they were undergoing regular inspections. They have not been restarted.

As for the demand by Fukushima Prefecture and others to decommission all four reactors at TEPCO’s Fukushima No. 2 plant, Hirose merely said, “I think we should make a decision after taking many factors into consideration, such as the role of nuclear power in Japan and the feelings of prefectural residents,” he said.
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