nuclear-news

Japanese government far too involved in nuclear industry

Too Much Government Support Distorted Nuclear Industry: Inquiry Panel Member, FOX Business News, By Mitsuru Obe,  July 08, 2011,  Dow Jones Newswires

— Government continues to play overbearing role in nuclear industry, inquiry panel member says

— Generous state assistance, protection encouraged exaggerated move by power companies into nuclear power

— Power plant operators failed to learn lessons from Chernobyl disaster

TOKYO -(Dow Jones)- The Japanese government’s heavy involvement in the nuclear power business has distorted the decision-making of plant operators and led to the construction of nuclear plants without regard to real economic costs, indirectly contributing to the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi complex, a member of a fact-finding committee said Friday……

“This has distorted the economic incentives and risk profile of nuclear power. Without massive government assistance, utilities would never have gotten into nuclear power so heavily,” Yoshioka said at the second meeting of the committee, which was set up to investigate the causes of the worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

The 10-person panel was launched early last month and is set to produce an interim report by the end of the year and a final report by next summer……..http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2011/07/08/too-much-government-support-distorted-nuclear-industry-inquiry-panel-member/

July 8, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, politics