Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary (Excerpt)

Q&As

(Abridged)

REPORTER: Today a meeting of the Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) submitted a revised recommendation, calling for the expansion of Emergency Planning Zones (EPZ) for disaster preparedness to a radius of 30km. Do you think that such a measure would have an influence on the scope of local understanding when we say local understanding concerning the issue of the restarting of operations at nuclear power stations?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA: First of all, to be more precise, the proposal was submitted from the secretariat of the working group established under the Special Committee on Nuclear Disasters of the NSC. This has already been reported in the evening editions of the newspapers, including diagrams and commentary. The proposal is still part of an ongoing process. I believe your question concerned the impact the revision of EPZ would have on the scope of local governments of which approval is needed for the restarting of operations at power stations. What is most important when seeking to restart operations at power stations is to gain the understanding and cooperation of the local governments where the power stations are actually located, but it is also important to listen to the opinions of neighboring local governments. This is something I have stated on frequent occasions to date and there will be various discussions from now on a case-by-case basis with the various operators of the power stations and local governments. It is based on these discussions that the Government will make an overall decision.