information about Fukushima published in English in Japanese media info publiée en anglais dans la presse japonaise
20 Juin 2013
June 20, 2013
JIJI
Japan and Brazil are expected to agree at a bilateral summit meeting next week to resume negotiations on concluding a nuclear cooperation accord, a government source said.
The two sides began the talks in January 2011 but they have remained suspended since the nuclear meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 complex in March 2011.
The plan to restart them will be included in a joint statement to be issued after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s meeting with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in Tokyo on June 27, the source said Wednesday.
A bilateral nuclear agreement confirming the peaceful use of atomic energy must be concluded before any bilateral trade in nuclear technologies can take place. The Abe administration regards exports of nuclear plant equipment as a pillar of its economic growth strategy.
Brazil currently has two nuclear reactors in operation and aims to secure a more stable electricity supply by building more. Energy demand in the country is projected to rise further on the back of rapid economic growth.
Abe signed bilateral nuclear pacts with the United Arab Emirates and Turkey in May, Japan’s first such deals since the Fukushima No. 1 plant was crippled by the March 11, 2011, 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami. Later that month, Japan and India agreed to resume bilateral nuclear talks that also had been suspended since the Fukushima disaster.
During his current visit to Europe, Abe agreed with the leaders of countries including the Czech Republic on bilateral cooperation in the atomic energy sector.
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130620p2g00m0dm080000c.html
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan and Brazil will likely agree to resume talks on a civil nuclear cooperation pact at a summit meeting next week, a Japanese government source said Thursday, paving the way for Japanese companies to export atomic power generation technology and equipment.
The agreement is expected to come when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff meet next Thursday in Tokyo to discuss enhancing bilateral economic ties, according to the source.
With two nuclear power plants currently online, Brazil is hoping to increase the number and shift its focus from hydropower to nuclear energy.
Japan and Brazil began talks in January 2011 with an eye to signing a civil nuclear cooperation pact for the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
The talks, however, have been stalled since the nuclear crisis in Fukushima Prefecture, triggered by the devastating earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
A civil nuclear cooperation pact sets a legal framework for the peaceful use and transfer of atomic-power technologies and equipment as well as nuclear materials to ensure nonproliferation.
Abe hopes to boost exports of nuclear power technologies and equipment as one of the key areas in Japan's growth strategy.
In May, Japan signed civil nuclear power cooperation pacts with the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, and agreed to accelerate talks on such an accord with India.
Japan agreed on Sunday to deepen cooperation in the field of nuclear power with the so-called Visegrad Group of Eastern European nations -- Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.
June 17, 2013
WARSAW--In a first-ever summit, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on June 16 agreed with leaders of four central European nations to advance cooperation in the energy sector in an attempt to boost exports of nuclear reactors.
“Closer ties with the V4 will lead to infrastructure exports, a goal under Japan’s economic growth strategy,” Abe said after a summit with the Visegrad 4 (V4) regional cooperation framework, consisting of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.
A joint statement released after the summit said Japan needs to contribute to nuclear safety based on lessons learned from the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in 2011.
Japan has upgraded its relationship with the V4 from the foreign minister’s level, given the fast economic growth of the four member countries. Visegrad is a Hungarian city where Poland, Hungary and the former Czechoslovakia agreed on the grouping in 1991.
The four countries plan to build nuclear reactors in an effort to lessen dependence on Russia for energy resources.
The International Atomic Energy Agency estimates that nuclear power generation capacity in East Europe will increase 1.6 to 2 times in 2030 from the current 49 million kilowatts.
The figure means that 30 to 50 new reactors will likely be built by 2030, putting the region on par with Asia and the Middle East.
The Czech Republic is expected to select a contractor to build two additional reactors at the Temelin nuclear power plant in September at the earliest.
The team of Toshiba Corp. and its U.S. subsidiary, Westinghouse Electric Co., is competing with a Russian company for the contract.
Japanese and French companies are bidding for two reactors in Hungary, while contractors from Japan and five other countries are vying for two reactors in Poland.
When it exports a nuclear reactor, Japan needs to conclude a nuclear energy agreement, which limits the technology to civilian use.
But no such pact will be required for V4 countries because they are members of the European Atomic Energy Community, with which Japan has already concluded a nuclear energy agreement.
In May, Japan basically agreed with Turkey to build a nuclear plant on the Black Sea, the first export of the technology since the Fukushima disaster. It also in May signed a nuclear energy agreement with the United Arab Emirates. However, Abe's push to resume exports of nuclear reactors is not fully supported by the public.
According to an Asahi Shimbun survey in June, 59 percent of respondents said they are opposed to using nuclear reactors proactively to promote economic growth. A midlevel lawmaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party warned if Abe pushes exports of nuclear reactors too strongly, it could affect the Upper House election in July.
Apart from the nuclear energy cooperation, the joint statement released after the Japan-V4 summit also called for accelerating negotiations on an economic partnership agreement between Japan and the European Union.
Abe and his counterparts agreed to make preparations for a foreign ministers’ meeting on the sidelines of a session of the Asia-Europe Meeting in November. The leaders also agreed to designate 2014 as the year for promoting exchanges between Japan and the V4.
Prior to the summit with the grouping, Abe met with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and agreed to hold a bilateral meeting of defense officials in autumn.
(This article was written by Takayuki Hayashi in Warsaw and Hajime Horiguchi in Tokyo.)
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