Japan PM says - No more nukes

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Tuesday that Japan would abandon plans to build new nuclear reactors, saying his country needed to "start from scratch" in creating a new energy policy….


Mr. Kan said Japan would retain nuclear and fossil fuels as energy sources, but vowed to add two new pillars to Japan's energy policy: renewable energy and conservation.


Prime Minister Naoto Kan said alternative new energy would become "a major pillar" after the Fukushima accident."Taking this as a lesson, we will lead the world in clean energy such as solar and biomass, as we take a step toward resurrection," he told lawmakers last week.


Tuesday's decision will abandon a plan that the Kan government released last year to build 14 more nuclear reactors by 2030 and increase the share of nuclear power in Japan's electricity supply to 50 percent. Japan currently has 54 reactors that before the earthquake produced 30 percent of its electricity….


In a related move - Chubu Electric president Akihisa Mizuno says the company will immediately look to shut down all reactors at a nuclear power plant located 120 miles southwest of Tokyo.

Last Friday, Prime Minister Naoto Kan had asked for the plant to be shut… saying its safety systems aren’t sufficient to withstand a tsunami or earthquake.

The plant sits near an active earthquake zone that the government has forecast carries an 87 percent chance of producing a magnitude 8 or stronger earthquake in the next 30 years.

Chubu Electric's Hamaoka plant provides power to half of the 18 plants that make Toyota Motor Corp's vehicles in Japan, and all four of Suzuki Motor Corp's domestic car and motorcycle factories.