Wife tells Japan Prime Minister to stop exporting nuclear plants

Akie Abe, wife of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has repeatedly urged her husband to stop exporting nuclear technology, following Japan’s own nuclear disaster, a news report said on Wednesday.

“I told my husband not to sell nuclear plants overseas now. But he won’t listen,” Akie was quoted by the Hokkaido daily as saying.

She questioned why Japan was trying to sell nuclear technology and services abroad when it was still struggling to contain the situation at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

The plant suffered meltdowns at three of its six reactors after it was hit by the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

In October, Abe pledged to work to improve the safety of Japan’s atomic power.

The pledge was in a speech during a visit to Turkey, where a Japanese company has won a joint bid to build a nuclear power plant.

It was the first such order for a Japanese firm since the Fukushima disaster.

Japan is also planning to build a nuclear plant in Vietnam, and is eager to sell more overseas. (dpa/NAN)