Japan Press Weekly

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2010 March 31 - April 6 [ENVIRONMENT]

Gov’t promotes N-power generation

The Paper states that the utilization rates of Japan’s nuclear power plants is lower than that in South Korea and the United States, and that a one percent increase in the operating rates of the existing N-plants will contribute to cuts in carbon-dioxide emissions by about three million tons.

The Paper also defines the fast breeder reactor “Monju” as an internationally-expected nuclear facility despite being aware that its basic technology is “yet to be stylized.”

The Nuclear Safety Commission is supposed to ensure nuclear safety but is moving ahead with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry policy to advance the use of nuclear energy by using the need to counteract global warming as an excuse. What the Commission is doing only increases public fears about the danger of the nuclear power plants in Japan.

Japan is prone to earthquakes. When a 6.5-magnitude earthquake hit Shizuoka Prefecture last August, the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant No.5 reactor (advanced light water reactor) was automatically shutdown although the reactor is supposedly quakeproof at 8.4 on the Richter scale.

The Paper, however, made no mention of this matter.

As the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) requires in its international standards, a regulatory body independent of the nuclear energy industry must be established in Japan.
- Akahata, March 31, 2010