Support grows for call to do away with nuclear power

More than two-thirds of Japanese support Prime Minister Naoto Kan's call to do away with nuclear power, a media poll showed yesterday, underscoring growing opposition to atomic energy in the wake of the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Earlier this month the unpopular Kan said the Fukushima crisis, triggered by the massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami, had convinced him that Japan should wean itself from nuclear power and eventually have no atomic plants. The Fukushima complex is still leaking radiation four months after the disaster and the public is growing increasingly anxious about the safety of other plants across quake-prone Japan. A poll conducted this weekend by Kyodo news agency showed 70.3 per cent support for Kan's call to wean the county off atomic energy, which accounted for nearly a third of the country's electricity output before the crisis. Japanese utilities are operating 17 of the 54 reactors that had been available before the March 11 earthquake. All of those could be shut down by next May for maintenance if public worries over safety continue to stall reactor restarts. In a development that could add to those worries, Kyodo separately reported that a report by researchers showed a reactor unit at Kyushu Electric Power's Genkai plant in southwestern Japan may have a faulty pressure vessel. The study, led by Tokyo University professor Hiromitsu Ino, revealed disparities in the quality of steel used for the vessel at the No 1 reactor, signalling the possibility of mistakes in the manufacturing process, Kyodo reported. Kyodo quoted Ino as saying the reactor, which began operations in 1975, should be halted until its safety can be verified. From / Gulf News