AFP - Two months after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (northeast) following the earthquake, Prime Minister of Japan has demanded the closure of another station in the center of the group subjected to high seismic risk.
"I ordered that (...) Chubu Electric Power stops the operation of all reactors in the Hamaoka nuclear power plant," Naoto Kan said Friday during a press conference in Tokyo.
"This decision was taken for the safety of people," he said."We also took into account the enormous impact that a serious accident at the Hamaoka plant might have on Japanese society as a whole," he added.
The region will suffer a power shortage
This plant is located within 200 km southwest of Tokyo and a hundred kilometers from the city of Nagoya, the heart of an industrial region.
Specifically, this decision is to close the reactors 4 and 5 and does not restart the reactor 3, currently stopped for checking. Units 1 and 2 of the plant to five reactors had been finally stopped.
Mr.Kan warned that this decision might cause a power shortage in the region as a first step.
"The competent authorities including the Ministry of Science, estimated at 87% chance that an earthquake of magnitude 8 struck the region over the next 30 years," said Japanese Prime Minister.
"It is necessary to introduce measures in the medium and long terms, particularly the construction of protective walls facing the sea, who could resist" to a giant tsunami, he said, without elaborating on the calendar.
According to Kyodo, Chubu Electric has agreed to suspend operations.
"This can not be the last", says Greenpeace
Located at the junction of four tectonic plates, Japan is undergoing one of the strongest earthquakes recorded on Earth.On 11 March, a magnitude 9 earthquake followed by a giant tsunami devastated the northeast of the archipelago and left over 25,000 dead and missing, and in 1995, an earthquake in Kobe (center-west) made more than 6,400 dead.
The Japanese anti-nuclear activists rejoiced.
"Greenpeace welcomes the decision of the Prime Minister to close Hamaoka, one of the most dangerous nuclear plants in Japan," said Junichi Sato, Greenpeace Japan executive director.
"For the first time a sitting prime minister has directly sought a nuclear plant is closed in Japan.However, this can not be the last, "he added.
"Fukushima is a stark reminder of the consequences of nuclear energy, and there are still many other dangerous reactors in operation," he said.
Japan is facing two months since the worst nuclear accident in its history after cessation of cooling Fukushima Daiichi plant, caused by the disaster of 11 March.
Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), operator of the plant located 250 km northeast of Tokyo, believes it can reach the reactor cooling by January 2012.
Japan had about fifty nuclear reactors in operation before the earthquake.Nuclear power provides slightly less than 30% of the electricity consumed in the country.
