—Fukushima Governor Formally Announces Rescinding of Prior Approval for Pluthermal Program, declares, “On this occasion, we should rethink [Japan’s] nuclear power policy itself, taking it back to the starting point.”
—Asahi reports it is now certain that there will be a push for reconsideration of the nuclear fuel cycle.
Asahi Web Site. 2002 September 26th 13:24
English translation by Green Action
(Note words in brackets are by translator.)
At the prefectural legislative session held [September] 26, Fukushima Governor Eisaku Sato, stating that the precondition for implementing the Pluthermal Program had collapses as a result of Tokyo Electric’s cover-up of nuclear power plant problems, formally declared his decision to rescind prior approval for implementing the program he had granted in 1998 for the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Unit 3 reactor. “My understanding is that Pluthermal is a program which has been withdrawn. On this occasion, we should rethink [Japan’s] nuclear power policy itself, taking it back to the starting point.”
Earlier this month, Niigata Prefecture, Kashiwazaki City, etc. had already rescinded their prior approval in connection to the Pluthermal Program at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant Unit 3. The [Pluthermal] program being put forward by the national government and Tokyo Electric has been brought to a standstill, and it is now certain that there will be a push for reconsideration of the nuclear fuel cycle.
In February of 2001, after the Tokaimura criticality accident in Ibaragi Prefecture, Governor Sato had declared, “Pluthermal is unthinkable for the time-being.”
Fukushima Prefecture began its own Energy Policy Review, and on the 19th of this month made public its report that stated, “The problem is the national government’s innate characteristic [predisposition] of pushing forward nuclear policy like a bulldozer, slighting the residents of the region where power plants are located.”
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