News Detail

• A JAPANESE power company shut down its last atomic reactor early yesterday for a regular checkup, leaving the nation with only one other of its 54 reactors still in service one year after the start of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.The Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) halted reactor 6 at the seven-unit Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station on the Sea of Japan coast in Niigata prefecture.It was TEPCO’s only remaining running reactor after the accident at its Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. The last one in the country, reactor 3 at the Tomari Nuclear Power Plant in northern Japan, run by the Hokkaido Electric Power Co, was to be stopped on May 5 for maintenance, the company said.

• The country’s reactors have been falling idle, as operators have been shutting them for maintenance, but have faced stiff public and political opposition to restarting them after last year’s disaster.Concerns have been rising about severe power shortages this summer in a country where 30 per cent of electricity before the disaster was from nuclear generation.A recent survey conducted by the Japan Association for Public Opinion Research found 88 per cent of those polled expressed concerns about nuclear plants in the country, Tokyo Shimbun reported in mid-March.

• The Fukushima plant in north-eastern Japan went into meltdown after it was hit by a magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. A series of blasts and fires at the plant triggered the massive release of radioactive material into the environment. Japan has turned to thermal power generation to meet its energy needs, leading it to greatly increase the amount of fuel it imports and generating trade deficits.

• “Without nuclear power, a stable electricity supply cannot be expected for the time being,” major daily Yomiuri said in an editorial on Saturday. “The nation cannot afford to delay the reactivation of suspended reactors when there is no rational reason for doing so.”On Friday, the government’s Nuclear Safety Commission endorsed the results of initial stress tests on idled reactors 3 and 4 at the Oi Nuclear Power Station in Fukui.

• Safety assessments on nuclear plants nationwide started in two stages to reassure the public in the wake of the disaster. Idled reactors were subjected to the so-called stress tests focused on their capacity to withstand earthquakes and tsunami.“Nuclear plants that are judged to have no problem with their safety measures should be restarted,” the daily said. Japanese media reported Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and other ministers concerned were expected to confirm the safety of the reactors at the Oi plant, run by Kansai Electric Power Co.

• But Noda’s ruling Democratic Party of Japan’s task force on issues concerning last year’s nuclear disaster compiled a report, urging the government not to rush into the reactivation of the idled reactors.“It’s too early to make a political decision on the issue of restarting,” said the team led by House of Representatives lawmaker Satoshi Arai.The government has yet to make sufficient preparations to judge the safety of reactors, the team said.

• In Fukui, government officials have not even come to talk to residents in a community which hosts the Oi plant, whose two reactors Tokyo wants to restart soon, said Hisayo Takada, a Greenpeace Japan official stationed near the plant.Oi town has not conducted any evacuation drills in the rugged region, either, even after the nuclear disaster, she added.A town official confirmed there had been no disaster drills and no meetings with government officials about the restart of the idled reactors.Instead of first discussing the restart of idled reactors, “the government should actively promote the development of natural energy resources,” Takada said.

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