Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday said his government will take prompt, comprehensive steps to clean up the wrecked Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant amid growing concerns about the plant operator’s ability to handle it.
Embattled Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said over the weekend that radiation near a tank holding highly contaminated water at the plant had spiked 18-fold, to a level that could kill an exposed person in four hours. No new leak had been detected at the tank, but another leak was found from a pipe connecting two other tanks.
Abe reiterated that the government will step forward to take all necessary steps to handle the legacy of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in a quarter century, adding it will draw up a fundamental plan to do so “quickly.”
Abe’s Cabinet is likely to discuss this week funding for the Fukushima cleanup after a series of revelations about leaks of radioactive water at the coastal plant, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s taskforce on post-disaster reconstruction head Tadamori Oshima said.
Public concern over Fukushima, revived by the news of leaks of radiated water at the plant, have threatened to further delay the restart of other off-line reactors, a key part of Abe’s plan for economic revival and a pillar of the turnaround plan TEPCO has given its creditor banks.
Japan’s nuclear industry, which once provided a third of the nation’s power, has nearly come to a halt since a massive earthquake and tsunami struck the Fukushima plant in March 2011, causing reactor meltdowns. TEPCO has been pumping water over the reactors to keep them cool and storing the radioactive waste water, as well as contaminated ground water, in ever-growing numbers of above-ground tanks.
Japanese officials also fear that international attention to the Fukushima crisis could threaten Tokyo’s bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games, a decision set to be made by the International Olympics Committee on Saturday in Buenos Aires.
The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has begun issuing English-language updates on the Fukushima plant and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government now carries the latest radiation data on its Web site showing that radiation levels in the capital, about 230km from the stricken facility, are on par with or lower than London and New York.
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FIVE-YEAR WINDOW? A defense institute CEO said a timeline for a potential Chinese invasion was based on expected ‘tough measures’ when Xi Jinping seeks a new term Most Taiwanese are willing to defend the nation against a Chinese attack, but the majority believe Beijing is unlikely to invade within the next five years, a poll showed yesterday. The poll carried out last month was commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based think tank, and released ahead of Double Ten National Day today, when President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech. China maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and has held three rounds of war games in the past two years. CIA Director William Burns last year said that Chinese President Xi Jinping
REACTION TO LAI: A former US official said William Lai took a step toward stability with his National Day speech and the question was how Beijing would respond US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday warned China against taking any “provocative” action on Taiwan after Beijing’s reaction to President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on Double Ten National Day on Thursday. Blinken, speaking in Laos after an ASEAN East Asia Summit, called the speech by Lai, in which he vowed to “resist annexation,” a “regular exercise.” “China should not use it in any fashion as a pretext for provocative actions,” Blinken told reporters. “On the contrary, we want to reinforce — and many other countries want to reinforce — the imperative of preserving the status quo, and neither party taking any
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that China has “no right to represent Taiwan,” but stressed that the nation was willing to work with Beijing on issues of mutual interest. “The Republic of China has already put down roots in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu,” Lai said in his first Double Ten National Day address outside the Presidential Office Building in Taipei. “And the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China [PRC] are not subordinate to each other.” “The People’s Republic of China has no right to represent Taiwan,” he said at the event marking the 113th National Day of
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