Japan utility scraps plan for new nuke plant

In this computer screenshot made from the Google Maps website provided on March 27, 2013, by Google, deserted buildings are seen in March, 2013, in Namie, Japan, a nuclear no-go zone where former residents have been unable to live since they fled from radioactive contamination from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant two years ago.

A Japanese utility has scrapped plans to build a nuclear plant near the site of a nuclear disaster two years ago.

Tohoku Electric Power Co. said on Thursday that strong protests from local communities as well as radiation leaks at the proposed site of the new power station make the project unworkable. The company wanted to build a plant north of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant that was destroyed by a tsunami that struck after a huge earthquake on March 11, 2011.

But the utility said land acquisition and environmental surveys could not be completed due to contamination.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe supports resumption of reactors deemed safe. The company still plans to build a new reactor at an existing plant. Japan has 50 workable reactors and 12 in the pipeline.