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Nuclear power unsafe, too costly – Ex-Japan PM Naoto Kan

Ex-Japan PM: nuclear power remains unsafe and too costly Naoto Kan, who presided over country during Fukushima disaster in 2011, cautions over plans to build new UK plants, Guardian, Terry Macalister 12 Mar 16 Nuclear power is unsafe and too expensive to justify building new plants anywhere in the world, according to the Japanese prime minister at the time of the Fukushima nuclear accident. Speaking on the fifth anniversary of the disaster, Naoto Kan said he was against the idea of Japanese manufacturers such as Hitachi and Toshiba building plants in the UK.

“Nuclear power is not safe. In the worst case scenario up to 50 million people would have had to be evacuated. Nuclear power is not a suitable technology and renewable power is much better,” Kan told the Guardian.

The former prime minister insisted he did not want to tell other countries such as Britain what to do but he said he did not support the reactors being switched back on in Japan.

His warning came as Britain’s nuclear plans are hanging in the balance because of delays over the go-ahead for EDF Energy’s Hinkley Point C project in Somerset and concerns about the project’s financial viability.

While the French company EDF is at the centre of the Hinkley scheme, Hitachi and Toshiba are behind similar intiatives being developed for new reactors atWylfa on Anglesey, Oldbury in South Gloucestershire, and Sellafield in Cumbria.

Kan said it “did not make sense” to construct new atomic plants because of the cost, especially in those countries where there were no long-term storage facilities for high level radioactive waste. This includes Britain and Japan.

“What I experienced as prime minister made me feel that it does not make sense to rely on nuclear. New generation plant designs are supposed to increase safety but all these do is increase the cost.”………..The £18bn Hinkley Point C nuclear project was thrown into doubt this week after after EDF’s finance director, Thomas Piquemal, resigned after opposing the deal. He believes the costly agreement threatens the company’s future. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/11/japan-naoto-kan-nuclear-power-unsafe-fukushima

March 12, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs