Worries about energy supply in Japan grew as officials said an earthquake-hit nuclear plant would stay shut at least for the summer amid fresh safety fears.
TOKYO: Worries about energy supply in Japan grew Thursday as officials said an earthquake-hit nuclear plant would stay shut at least for the summer amid fresh safety fears.
The powerful earthquake killed 10 people, injured more than 1,000 and destroyed hundreds of buildings, forcing Japan's fast-growing automakers to curtail production.
Measuring 6.8 on the Richter-scale, it struck just nine kilometres (five miles) from the world's largest nuclear power plant, where smoke billowed for hours and a small amount of radioactive water leaked.
The Nikkei business newspaper, citing unnamed sources, said the government would keep the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant shut for at least a year as the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), conducts a safety study.
Officials in Tokyo declined to comment, but a local representative in the plant's hometown of Kashiwazaki said it would not be used at least through the summer, the peak months for electricity demand.
The damage to the plant is "unprecedented and it's hard to predict when operations can resume," said fire department official Osamu Oshima. "I don't know when we can finish inspections, but it's not going to be soon. Maybe it'll take several months or more," he said.
TEPCO has already asked other companies to pitch in to meet the metropolis's electricity needs. "We'll do our best for stable electricity supply, utilising our existing thermal power plants, but we may need to ask our customers to save on power," TEPCO spokesman Ryo Shimizu said.
The earthquake has also taken an economic toll by halting production at major automakers. Honda Motor on Thursday joined its rivals in cutting production for lack of parts following damage to Riken Corp., which makes piston rings.
Tokyo Electric has insisted Monday's earthquake did not cause any dangerous nuclear leaks, but it has faced heavy criticism for initially underreporting the incident. In the latest revelations, Japan's nuclear watchdog said another small radioactive leak emanated from the filter of an exhaust pipe of a reactor on either Tuesday or Wednesday.
Japan, which experiences 20 percent of the planet's major earthquakes, has increasingly turned to nuclear power as it has virtually no natural energy resources. The world's second-largest economy relies on nuclear energy for a third of its needs and is seeking to reduce further its dependence on oil and gas from the turbulent Middle East.
The high-selling Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper in an editorial supported nuclear power but said reactors needed to be reinforced to withstand stronger earthquakes. If no action is taken, "it would only allow anxiety over the safety over nuclear power stations to prevail among the public," the daily said.
But the conservative Sankei Shimbun urged people to "think coolly" and not exaggerate the damage. "Atomic power not only supplies electricity but is an effective tool in preventing global warming. We should not forget this reality," it said. The seven million-kilowatt Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant accounts for more than 10 percent of the total energy supply of TEPCO, the world's largest private power company.
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