US worried

September 13, 2012

U.S. official airs concern about Japan's nuclear phaseout policy

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120913p2g00m0dm037000c.html

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) -- U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman has voiced concern about Japan's new energy policy, which aims to abolish nuclear power generation in the 2030s, a Japanese ruling party lawmaker said Wednesday.

In a meeting Tuesday in Washington with Seiji Maehara, policy chief of the Democratic Party of Japan, Poneman urged Japan to make efforts to minimize the negative impact from possible abandonment of atomic energy by Japan, Maehara told reporters.

Maehara said such a concern is understandable as Japan's policy shift toward a phaseout of nuclear energy means a change to the existing nuclear energy cooperation between Tokyo and Washington.

He also said he got the impression Poneman understood to some extent the energy policy shift in Japan given the devastating nuclear disaster last year and the desire of many Japanese for a society without nuclear power.