nuclear-news

42% of Japan’s lawmakers want nuclear power ended by 2030

ASAHI SURVEY: 42% of Diet members want end to nuclear power   August 26, 2012 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN Forty-two percent of Diet members favor a government proposal for abandoning nuclear energy by 2030, showing growing support for a drastic policy shift following last year’s nuclear disaster, an Asahi  Shimbun survey found.

Of Diet members in the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, 40 percent
backed the abolition of the technology.

But only 4 percent of Diet members of the main opposition Liberal
Democratic Party supported the zero reliance option.

With respect to licensing new nuclear plants and relicensing of the
existing plants, 60 percent of the Diet members were opposed, while 5
percent were in favor.

Tetsuro Fukuyama, a DPJ member in the Upper House and deputy chief
Cabinet secretary when the accident occurred last year at the
Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, said Japan should expand
renewable energy sources. He is one of 83 DPJ members in the Diet in
favor of abandoning nuclear power.

“We can create a cycle of positive developments by pushing
deregulation, research and development of technology, which will spur
job creation and demands and lead to technological innovation,”
Fukuyama said.

The Asahi Shimbun received responses from a total of 434 Diet members
through questionnaires, interviews and comments in news conferences
between late July and Aug. 25.

The number represents 60 percent of all the members in the Lower House
and Upper House…. The survey also found that 41 percent were in
favor of burying spent nuclear fuel from reactors deep underground
under “direct disposal,” abandoning a longtime goal of creating a full
nuclear fuel cycle through recycling of all such fuel.

As for the reason, they said no need will arise for reprocessing after
a shift from nuclear power and that little progress has been made over
the years toward actual utilization of the envisioned nuclear fuel
cycle.

Those calling for the continuation of the reprocessing effort stood at
4 percent.   http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201208260045

August 27, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, politics