Japan Press Weekly

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2015 December 2 - 8 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Local residents criticize Kyuden president for aiming to operate Sendai NPP for 60 years

A civic group in Kagoshima Prefecture visited a local branch of Kyushu Electric Power Company (Kyuden) on December 2, making representations about the company president’s remark that he intends to operate the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant to its maximum lifespan of 60 years.

In accordance with the Abe government policy, Kyuden resumed the operations of the Sendai NPP in August. Kyuden President Uriu Michiaki said in November, “We’ll work to continue operating the power station for 60 years.”

In the representations, a member of the civil group said, “The operator forcibly restarted the Sendai plant in defiance of strong local opposition. It is insulting local residents by proclaiming that the company will operate its already-old reactors until they reach their 60-year limit.”

The utility also has a plan to build an intermediate storage facility for spent nuclear fuel inside the plant compound.

Those protesters noted that there is no knowing when the spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Aomori’s Rokkasho Village will launch its operations. They demanded the cancellation of the construction plan, arguing that the planned “intermediate” facility would be forced to store spent nuclear materials forever.

Past related article:
> Kagoshima Prefecture holds bogus public briefing for restart of Sendai NPP [December 1, 2015]