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Former Japanese PM
Kan denies praising plant safety
Staff Writer, CNA
Former Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan denied making comments on the safety
management of Taiwan¡¦s Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant during a recent visit.
Kan, who was Japan¡¦s top executive when a 2011 earthquake led to a meltdown at
the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, said he was only briefed by the
officials from the Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) during his one-hour visit there
and he had not commented on the plant¡¦s facilities.
There is no absolutely safe nuclear power plant in the world, Kan said at an
anti-nuclear power event Friday evening in which he shared his experience after
the nuclear power disaster.
If a nuclear disaster takes place in Taiwan, the situation will be more serious
than the one in Fukushima as Taiwan is small and cannot provide enough safety
buffer zones between the plant and populated areas, he said.
Kan¡¦s remark came after Taipower told local media that Japan¡¦s former prime
minister praised the first nuclear power plant in New Taipei City¡¦s (·s¥_¥«)
Shihmen District (¥Ûªù) for having better safety management than Japan¡¦s Fukushima
Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
According to reports, Kan was quoted by officials from Taipower as saying that
the plant was equipped with improved spent fuel pools and a reactor core
isolation cooling system.
Compared with the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which kept their
standby generators at a lower level, the plant in Taiwan has a better design
with the gas turbine generator installed on higher ground, according to reports.
When Kan arrived in Taipei on Tuesday to promote a nuclear free homeland, he
said that only a country with no nuclear power can claim total safety.
He is scheduled to return to Japan today.
Taipower arranged the one hour meeting for Kan based on the friendly relations
between the two countries, the company said. However, it originally rejected
Kan¡¦s request to visit the company last week.
Citing an independent report by Japan¡¦s parliament and private sector, Taipower
attributed administrative error and bad decision making as the cause of the
nuclear meltdown in Japan, which will not be necessarily repeated in Taiwan.
Currently, Taiwan has three operational nuclear power plants and six reactors.
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