Japan’s third-biggest power operator yesterday agreed to shut a
nuclear plant until it can be better defended against the type
of massive tsunami which in March triggered the worst atomic
crisis in 25 years. Compounding public concern over an industry
that supplies about 30 percent of the country’s electricity,
another nuclear power operator — Japan Atomic Power — said it
had plugged a tiny radiation leak at its Tsuruga nuclear power
plant on the west coast — the first since it started operations
in 1987. It said the leak had no impact on the environment. The
move to close Chubu Electric Power Co’s Hamaoka nuclear power
plant, 200km southwest of Tokyo and considered one of the quake-
prone country’s most at risk, follows unusually overt pressure
from Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan. The demand for its
closure signals a potential shift in energy policy after the
Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in the northeast was
wrecked by a giant tsunami triggered by one of the biggest
earthquakes ever recorded on M