Japan's Power Companies to Abandon Nuclear Power Generation

Japan's major power companies' shakeholders on Tuesday called on the utilities to abandon nuclear power generation due to safety concerns, local media reported.

TOKYO (Sputnik) — Shareholders of Japan's major power companies on Tuesday called on the utilities to abandon nuclear power generation over safety concerns in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, local media reported.

According to the Kyodo news agency, nine companies, including Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, are expected to reject the proposals at their shareholders meetings.

Some shareholders of Kyushu Electric Power demanded the company to stop the operations of the two recently restarted reactors at its Sendai Nuclear Power Plant in the Kagoshima Prefecture in southwestern Japan.

Company Shikoku Electric Power, according to Kyodo, plans to resume the work of the third nuclear reactor Ikata in the Ehime Prefecture. Other companies also intend to launch nuclear power plants, which were halted after the Fukushima disaster.

The news agency stressed that the Japanese shareholders have submitted 73 proposals, including the abandonment of nuclear power and nuclear cycle, which produces plutonium from spent reactor fuel.

In March 2011, Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant was hit by a 46-foot tsunami, triggered by a 9.0-magnitude offshore earthquake. The tsunami caused three of the plant's six reactors to melt down and radioactive materials leaked into the sea and air.