(Mainichi Japan) May 23, 2011
Prime Minister Naoto Kan is pictured during the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee for disaster restoration on May 23. (Mainichi)
Prime Minister Naoto Kan has denied the recent speculation that he instructed the temporary suspension of seawater injection into a troubled reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant a day after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
"Neither the members of the (crisis-control) meeting held at the Prime Minister's Office nor I ordered the suspension of water injection," Kan stressed during the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee for earthquake disaster restoration on May 23.
The remark followed the recent revelation that Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the operator of the crippled nuclear power plant, suspended the injection of seawater into the overheating No. 1 reactor for about 55 minutes on the evening of March 12.
During the committee meeting, which was set up to discuss a government restoration bill and a counter proposal by the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, LDP President Sadakazu Tanigaki criticized Kan for allowing the situation to worsen by suspending the cooling operation of the nuclear reactor.
However, Kan denied the accusation, saying, "I was fully aware of the need to inject seawater into the reactor when fresh water became no longer available. I had also recognized the risk of recriticality, so I asked experts (of the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan) to examine the possibility. I don't believe I did anything inappropriate."
TEPCO claims it stopped the injection of seawater into the No. 1 reactor at 7:25 p.m. on March 12, about 20 minutes after it started the operation, after the company was told the prime minister and other Cabinet officials were yet to decide how they would cool down the reactor.
Kan denied his involvement in the suspension of the seawater injection, saying, "Neither the Cabinet secretaries nor I knew TEPCO had started injecting seawater into the reactor, so there is no way we could order the company to stop the operation."
Earlier on May 22, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano also said that the government had never instructed the utility to stop pouring seawater into the reactor.
"I know the prime minister urged the company to respond quickly again and again, but had he never asked it not to take action," Edano said.
(Mainichi Japan) May 23, 2011
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