Tokyo/Fukushima, Mar 31: As Japan grappled with its worst atomic crisis in decades, Premier Naoto Kan today said the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant must be scrapped as radiation seeping into sea tested 4,385 times the legal limit, but authorities ruled out expanding the evacuation zone.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited the Japanese capital, in the first trip by a world leader here since the March 11 magnitude-9 quake and tsunami that devastated this country's northeast leaving nearly 30,000 people dead or unaccounted for.
During his meeting with Kan, the two sides agreed to cooperate in crafting new international nuclear safety standards by the end of this year, Kyodo news agency reported.
After their talks, they told a joint news conference that the nuclear issue will top the agenda at the Group of Eight summit in late May, when the leaders of the elite grouping, including those from the US and Britain, will gather in the northwestern French resort city of Deauville.
“Our country's experience of this nuclear accident is very painful,” Kan said. “But to prevent a recurrence of this kind of thing, I believe that we are obliged to share this experience accurately with countries all over the world.”
Sarkozy, who stopped briefly here after taking part in a G-20 seminar in the Chinese city of Nanjing, said the problem with nuclear energy is that “there are no global common rules” and “we need to improve safety standards, not discuss whether we should choose to stop introducing nuclear energy.”
He said France, which has the second highest number of nuclear power stations after the US, wanted to hold a meeting of atomic safety authorities of G-20, which also includes India, in May and reflect results at a ministerial conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in June.
Earlier in the day, Kan told the Japanese Communist Party leader Kazuo Shii that the entire six-reactor Fukushima nuclear power station at the centre of the crisis must be put out of service, Kyodo reported.
His remarks came a day after the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), said that it would scrap four stricken reactors at the facility, situated 220 km northeast of Tokyo.
Kan also said he would look into reviewing the existing plans to build at least 14 more nuclear reactors by 2030 in the wake of the ongoing atomic crisis.
In a sign that contamination was leaking continuously from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, radioactive iodine-131 at a concentration of 4,385 times the maximum level permitted under law was detected in seawater around 330 metres south of the plant yesterday, according to the latest data.
It was the highest reading since the March 11 quake. The previous high was recorded the day before, which was 3,355 times the maximum legal limit. PTI
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