January 30, 2015

Abe: Whether to scrap Fukushima Daini plant

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/nuclear.html

Jan. 30, 2015 - Updated 11:36 UTC+1

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says Tokyo Electric Power Company will decide whether to scrap reactors at its Fukushima Daini plant. It's about 10 kilometers south of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which was crippled by the earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

TEPCO's Daiichi complex suffered a meltdown after the earthquake, but the Daini plant did not.

Abe was answering a question from Chizuko Takahashi of the Communist Party during a session of a Lower House committee meeting on Friday.

Takahashi said that the government should focus on bringing the situation at the Daiichi plant under control. She stressed it should not try to resume operations at Daini which have been suspended since the disaster.

The lawmaker urged the government to scrap all of them.

Abe said he asked TEPCO to decommission the 2 Daiichi reactors that escaped serious damage because of their proximity to 4 crippled reactors.

He also noted the priority at Daiichi is to establish a system that focuses on clean-up work.

Abe said that's not the case for reactors at the Daini plant which are located away from the crippled Daiichi plant.

He said the operator will decide whether to decommission Daini. It must also take into consideration the country's future energy policy, measures to meet the new safety standards, and opinions of local people.