japan reaffirms nuclear energy use

Article from "The New York Times" online Asia Pacific section.

TOKYO Japan remains committed to nuclear power despite the continuing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Prime Minister Naoto Kan indicated Sunday, as workers moved closer to repairing the crippled plant by opening the doors of a damaged reactor building.
The move is intended to air out the building that houses Reactor No. 1 to ensure that radiation levels are low enough to allow workers to enter. The plants operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, said the procedure would release little radiation into the atmosphere because an air filtering system installed last week had already removed most of the dangerous particles.
Eight hours after the doors are opened, officials said, workers will go inside to begin replacing the reactors cooling system, which was destroyed by the tsunami on March 11.
The company has said it will take at least six months to stabilize the plant, in which three of the six reactors were damaged by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami. Hydrogen explosions spewed radiation into the atmosphere, causing the worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl accident in Ukraine.
Despite the crisis in Japan, Mr. Kan indicated Sunday that his government was not rethinking the nations energy policy. There had been speculation that the government might seek to shut down more nuclear plants after Mr. Kan requested last week that the Hamaoka nuclear plant in central Japan be temporarily closed because of safety concerns.
Mr. Kan told reporters on Sunday that he would not seek to close any more of Japans 54 nuclear reactors. He said the Hamaoka plant, 125 miles west of Tokyo, was a special case because it sat atop a major fault line. Government seismologists say there is an almost 90 percent chance of a major earthquake on the fault line within the next 30 years.
Critics have long warned of a possible accident at the Hamaoka plant, which is upwind of Tokyo. Mr. Kan asked that the plant be closed until a tsunami-resistant wall could be built and backup systems could be installed to strengthen the plant against earthquakes.
The Hamaoka plants operator, the Chubu Electric Power Company, is expected to accept the prime ministers request, which appears to have the support of Japans nuclear-wary public. The companys board of directors is scheduled to meet Monday to consider the request. It did not reach a decision at a meeting on Saturday, when some board members expressed concern about summer power shortages if the plant were shut down.
The utility company supplies power to central Japan, including Aichi Prefecture, the home of Toyota. In Tokyo, residents face the prospect of electricity shortages because of the loss of the power supplied by Fukushima Daiichi and other plants in earthquake-damaged northern Japan.
Despite the setbacks, Yoshito Sengoku, the deputy chief cabinet secretary, said the nation would maintain nuclear power as an important source of energy. He said the disaster at Fukushima Daiichi had not forced Japan to reconsider its dependence on nuclear power, which supplies about a quarter of the nations electricity.
Our energy policy is to stick to nuclear power, Mr. Sengoku said Sunday morning on a television talk show.