Abe heads to Middle East on nuclear safety push
Tokyo insists Fukushima disaster has no impact on nuclear export drive
The prime minister of energy-poor Japan heads to the oil-rich Middle East this weekend in his latest push to promote nuclear technology exports, a spokesman said yesterday, despite growing problems at the crippled Fukushima plant.
Shinzo Abe was due to leave Tokyo today for a six-day trip that will take in Bahrain, Kuwait, Djibouti and Qatar, with discussion of Japan's nuclear know-how expected to be on the agenda.
Qatar and Kuwait have shown interest in Japan's nuclear safety technology," said an official at the foreign ministry. They don't necessarily plan to build a nuclear plant themselves, but their neighbouring countries do
"Qatar and Kuwait have shown interest in Japan's nuclear safety technology," said an official at the foreign ministry.
"They don't necessarily plan to build a nuclear plant themselves, but their neighbouring countries do.
"Qatar and Kuwait are therefore concerned about a possible accident and any environmental impact that might be inflicted."
Japan has continued to push its atomic expertise as an important export, despite the 2011 catastrophe at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, where multiple meltdowns cast a pall of radiation over much of the country's northeast.
