After explosions at a power station in Japan, Sen. Joe Lieberman is calling for a temporary halt on building new nuclear power plants in the United States.
Lieberman appeared on CBS’ "Face the Nation" on Sunday and said more details are needed on the possible partial meltdown of a Japanese reactor after Friday's massive earthquake.
Lieberman also said he supports the development of nuclear power.
"I've been a big supporter of nuclear power because it's domestic, it's ours and it's clean," Lieberman said while appearing on the program. "We've had a good safety with nuclear power plants here in the United States... I don't want to stop the building of nuclear power plants, but I think we've got to kind of quietly, quickly put the brakes on until we can absorb what has happened in Japan as a result of the earthquake and the tsunami and then see what more, if anything, we can demand of the new power plants that are coming online."
Lieberman also said U.S. states should re-evaluate building codes to determine if older buildings should be retrofitted with earthquake resistance systems.
