Japan will have to restore the quake-crippled Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant since there is a lack of building space in the country, Russia’s ex-deputy minister for atomic energy, Bulat Nigmatulin, said on Thursday.
A powerful earthquake and ensuing tsunami that hit Japan on March 11 triggered a number of explosions at Fukushima, spreading fears of massive radioactive contamination.
Radioactive pollution around the plant remains high with radioactive iodine in seawater at 147 times above the safety limit.
The Japanese government earlier said they would shut down the troubled plant, which produces up to 5% of the country’s energy with an estimated capacity of 4,696 MW.
Nigmatulin said Japan had no choice but to restore the plant, citing the lack of the available land suitable for such facilities. “The second variant is to replace the reactors inland, far from the coastline,” Nigmatulin said.
The plant should be restored regardless because the current energy deficit level will stall the country’s manufacturing industry.
Japan is the world’s fourth largest energy consuming country, though it has practically none of its own energy resources and imports 80 billion cubic meters of liquefied gas annually, topping the list of world’s largest liquefied gas importers.
MOSCOW, March 24 (RIA Novosti)