The Hamaoka nuclear power plant in central Japan closed its last running reactor on Saturday, after the March quake left another plant in the north-east leaking radioactive material, its operator said.Chubu Electric Co shut reactor five on Saturday amid concerns over its location near a fault line in Shizuoka prefecture.Reactor four was shut down Friday, Japanese media reported.Reactors one and two have already been decommissioned, and number three is currently shut down for routine maintenance.A wall to protect the closed plant from tsunamis is to be completed in the next two to three years, officials said.
There were no reported plans to close down any of Japan’s other nuclear reactors, which currently provide 30 per cent of its electricity. But the government has said it would abandon plans to ramp up the nuclear contribution to the power grid to 50 per cent, and instead would increase the share of renewable energy.
A magnitude-9 earthquake hit north-eastern Japan on March 11, causing the cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to overheat, leading to fires and explosions which have left the facility leaking radioactive material ever since.
Courtesy : The Hindu
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