Crisis likely spells end for nuclear plant pursuit, Kan tells U.K. paper May 25th

Crisis likely spells end for nuclear plant pursuit, Kan tells U.K. paper
Kyodo, Bloomberg
The Fukushima nuclear crisis has made it difficult to build new atomic plants in Japan, Prime Minister Naoto Kan suggested in an interview with the Financial Times, citing the experience of the United States after the 1979 Three Mile Island accident.

Kan was quoted Tuesday by a government official as telling the British newspaper that Japan will depend less on nuclear energy and focus more on natural energy and energy-saving efforts in light of the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 complex.

Kan referred to the Three Mile Island case, after which no new nuclear power plants have been built in the United States.

Speaking before attending the Group of Eight summit in France from Thursday, Kan expressed confidence the Fukushima crisis can be brought under control by January at the latest in line with the timetable set by Tokyo Electric Power Co.

Kan said he will inform his G-8 counterparts that Japan will recover from the March 11 disaster and rebuild, and hopes the nuclear crisis will serve as a lesson for the G-8 to ensure the safety of nuclear power plants worldwide. He also touched on the closely watched process of picking the successor to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former International Monetary Fund managing director who was arrested and indicted over an alleged sexual assault of a maid at a New York hotel.

With moves afoot to pick the next IMF chief from among emerging economic powers, Kan said there's no automatic right for the next head of the IMF to be European, without ruling out supporting such a candidate. Europeans have picked the head of the fund since its founding at the end of World War II.

Japan doesn't have a regional preference in determining who succeeds Strauss-Kahn, Kan said, while calling for a transparent selection process in finding a successor, the official said he told the FT.