Promises

 April 2, 2016

Abe pledges to help improve nuclear plant safety

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20160402_12/

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says Japan will contribute to improving the safety of nuclear plants around the world by sharing the lessons learned from the 2011 nuclear accident in Fukushima.

Abe spoke during a session of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington on Friday.

Referring to the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant 5 years ago, he said Japan is again on the path to taking its lead in the peaceful use of nuclear power, with a determination to prevent the recurrence of another such accident.
He said Japan's mission is to share with the world the lessons learned from the accident and spread its knowledge of the safety of nuclear plants and measures to prevent accidents.
He said Japan plans to make contributions through providing personnel training and drawing up safety standards.

Abe also spoke about the need to secure complete transparency in maintaining the peaceful use of nuclear power as nuclear plants are being built worldwide.

He expressed hope that countries will deepen discussions at the International Atomic Energy Agency and other venues for concrete action.

He said nuclear nonproliferation cannot be achieved without the cooperation of all the countries that use nuclear power.

Abe said Japan will work to minimize the amount of nuclear material such as highly enriched uranium and plutonium. The material could be used to develop nuclear weapons.

At the ensuing working lunch, participants discussed efforts for tightening nuclear security and other topics.

Abe expressed determination to take all possible measures to prevent nuclear and other terrorist attacks, saying enhancing anti-terror measures is an urgent task.

Japan will host the Group of 7 summit at Ise-Shima in May and the Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo in 2020.