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Will Japan Move Away from Nuclear, Toward Renewable Energy?

This article is more than 10 years old.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said today that plans to build new nuclear power plants should be scrapped and the nation should design a completely new energy future. Such a plan will likely include a new emphasis on renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power, and a commitment to enhancing energy efficiency, he stated.

"We now need to go back to the drawing board," Kan said at a press conference, "and conduct a fundamental review of the nation's basic energy policy."

Under current plans, Japan is expected to meet half of its electrical needs from nuclear power by the year 2030.

Kan's statement is consistent with his recent call for Chubu Electric Power Company to close its Hamaoka nuclear generating station, due to the reactors' location in a highly active seismic area. Yesterday Chubu announced it would comply with Kan's request, shutting down the plant for around two years while a higher seawall can be built to protect it from a tsunami.

Critics of Kan's call to close Hamaoka said his request was unfair. Several other nuclear power plants in Japan are also located on unstable land, they pointed out.

Kan's latest announcement suggests that those plants may face similar requests.

At the press conference, Kan also apologized for the long-standing policy of increasing reliance on nuclear power.

"In the past," he said, "the government promoted nuclear power generation as a national policy. So it shares the responsibility for the problems caused by the Fukushima Daiichi plant."