Koizumi criticizes Abe's nuclear revival policy

October 23, 2014

Ex-PM Koizumi raps Abe's aim to revive nuclear power

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20141023p2g00m0dm040000c.html

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, known as a firm opponent to nuclear power following the 2011 Fukushima meltdowns, on Wednesday criticized current Japanese leader Shinzo Abe's policy to revive the country's nuclear power generation.

"The government says Japan has the world's toughest safety standards for nuclear plants, but are they really tough compared with (regulations in) the United States, France or Finland? Not at all," Koizumi told a symposium in Tokyo.

All 48 commercial reactors in Japan are currently offline, but Abe is pushing for the restart of reactors that have cleared the post-Fukushima regulations. A two-reactor plant operated by Kyushu Electric Power Co. may go back online as early as the beginning of the next year.

Koizumi urged Abe to break away from nuclear power, saying, "People would not cooperate" over the matter of finding a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste unless the government vows "not to increase nuclear waste anymore."

In May, Koizumi established a body to promote renewable energy together with another former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, who unsuccessfully ran in the Tokyo gubernatorial election in February on an antinuclear platform.

October 23, 2014(Mainichi Japan)