He has told the USA’s Huffington Post of his conversion to renewable energy in this way.
“Before the Fukushima accident, with the belief that no nuclear accident would happen as long as the safety measures were followed properly, I had pushed the policy of utilising nuclear power,” he wrote.
“Having faced the real accident as prime minister, and having experienced the situation which came so close to requiring me to order the evacuation of 50 million people, my view is now changed 180 degrees.”
Mr Kan told Fairfax Media the world market for uranium was simply not as strong as it was before the Fukushima disaster.
“The trends we are seeing in the United States and Europe – and also because of the very high costs of nuclear power – we are not seeing a growth in this market,” he said.
“The country with the most plans to expand its nuclear plants is China.
“But China has a very high population density so in the case of any kind of accident it would have a huge impact.”
Mr Kan said he would like to see China greatly expand its renewable energy use.
“But at the moment the Chinese government is looking the other way, looking at an increase [in traditional energy],” he said.
Mr Kan said if there was any chance of Queensland developing a uranium market around the world, it would be in China.
He acknowledged Australia – and Queensland – had considerable uranium resources which it had the right to export, with the responsibility for “uranium safety” belonging to the purchasing country.
But Mr Kan said there remained an “ethical responsibility.”
“Japan is at the moment looking to export nuclear power plants to India,” he said.
“But from my position, I believe that if nuclear power is something we should not be using within Japan, we should not be selling this technology overseas to other countries.
“So from an ethical position I believe this is not correct.”Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/japans-former-pm-tells-of-tokyo-evacuation-risk-after-fukushima-20140827-1097na.html#ixzz3BeZFjxlO
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