THE GOOD news announcement had the sheen taken off it. On Tuesday, Japan’s government said it believes it is now on course to controlling the crippled but stabilised Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, and that radiation levels have falllen substantially. But Tokyo also ordered the suspension of shipments of beef from the Fukushima district after reports that cattle have been fed on straw contaminated by high levels of radioactive caesium.
Much-criticised prime minister Naoto Kan was giving his monthly report on progress in shutting down the plants whose cooling systems had been knocked out by the earthquake/tsunami in March that left almost 21,000 dead. Although able to express some confidence, however, he was unable to give a firm schedule for the closedown – it could take until 2015 to start removing uranium fuel rods from storage pools – and warned a final clean-up of the site would take many years.
Some 80,000 residents evacuated from around the plant may have to wait until January to know when or whether they can return home.
Concerns about the Daiichi plant have also assumed a much wider significance, fuelling a raging debate about dependence on nuclear power – about 30 per cent of the country’s power before the quake, and supposed in years ahead to rise to 53 per cent – with some 77 per cent in an Asahi poll last week favouring its “gradual abolition”.
Mr Kan, whose public approval has slumped on criticism of his management of the crisis, survived a parliamentary no-confidence vote last month, though only after promising he would step down once the crisis is contained. Whenever that might be.
In the interim he has bowed to the popular mood and last week infuriated the nuclear industry lobby with a speech arguing that Japan should abandon plans to build 14 new reactors by 2030 and should gradually reduce dependence on nuclear power. He questioned whether private companies should be running atomic plants. “Through my experience of the March 11th accident,” he said, “I came to realise the risk of nuclear energy is too high ... We should eventually create a society where we can do without atomic energy.”
It is a challenging policy for Japan, already facing widespread energy shortages because of the “temporary” closure of 35 of its 54 reactors. Opposed within the government and outside by the politically influential nuclear lobby, the policy may well prove as short-lived as Mr Kan’s own political career is likely to be.