(Graphic Credit: Amaterasu Solar)17 September 2012Japan announced on Friday that the government led by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda had adopted a new energy policy including a plan to end the use of nuclear power within the next three decades. The policy had been endorsed by the Japanese Cabinet as part of a new energy policy that calls for emphasizing conservation and renewable energy sources as well as energy saving measures such as the introduction of smart metering.
The policy also says that Japan should develop resources in nearby waters and look to cheaper procurement of liquefied natural gas and other fossil fuels, including shale gas.
The Japanese government began reviewing its energy policy in March 2011, after the now infamous Fuskushima nuclear power plant disaster, and worldwide scrutiny about the state of Japan's nuclear power infrastructure and management. Many will see this move as an effort on Japan's part to bow to the considerable amount of public pressure to which it has been subjected since the 2011 incident.
"The government will introduce every possible policy resource that would enable nuclear power generation to be at zero during the 2030s," the policy stated.The new policy also calls for converting the Monju experimental fast breeder reactor into a test bed for treating nuclear waste and then decommissioning the reactor once those studies are complete. The plan, however, sets no date by which this shall be done.
The move would bring resource-poor Japan into line with European Union countries like Italy, Switzerland and Germany, which have said they will wean themselves off reliance on nuclear power by 2022, amid growing and increasingly vocal concern from citizens everywhere on the safety and sustainability of nuclear power.
When a major earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in March, 2011, amongst the destruction caused, was a failure of the cooling system in three reactors at Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant, which eventually resulted in a nuclear meltdown on March 12 releasing massive amounts of radioactive compounds.
Thousands of people were forced to evacuate their homes around Fukushima in the weeks following what would turn out to be the largest nuclear disaster that the world had seen in 25 years, as the fallout from the atomic disaster spread radiation across the country and then the ocean in an ever-increasing radius.
In the months that followed, all of Japan's nuclear reactors were shut down for safety checks, with only two having been brought back online since. Japan is now heavily dependent on Middle East oil and has been forced to ramp up its imports to make up the energy shortfall since the accident.
Prior to the disaster, an energy plan adopted in 2010 called for boosting Japan's reliance on nuclear power from about one third to nearly half of generating capacity by 2050. In light of the continued pressure from the rest of the world since the disaster, Tokyo's new policy calls for existing reactors to be shut down after 40 years of service, that no new reactors be built and that existing reactors are only recommissioned subject to their successfully meeting standards issued by the new regulatory agency.
Out of Japan's 50 nuclear reactors, only two are currently operating, with the remainder awaiting clearance from safety checks and approval at both a local and national level before they can recommence operations.
As was to be expected, business lobbied heavily against the changing direction of Japan's energy policy, with warning of increased electricity costs should nuclear power be dropped as Japan's primary energy generation source, and the damage that could do to the Japanese economy and their ability to be internationally competitive in manufacturing and export.
Concern over the time it would take to ramp up a renewable energy program and the possibility that Japan would have to rely on fossil fuels in the interim, thus damaging their ability to meet emission reduction targets, was also cited, however, public opinion has hardened against nuclear power both, domestically and internationally, after the results of a series of investigations into Tokyo Electric Power Co., the Fukushima plant operator, found that
the operator had been complacent about safety, ignored warnings of vulnerability to natural disasters, and covered up problems and that the nuclear regulatory agency had been complicit in these activities, by looking the other way. Polls show a clear majority want the nation to go nuclear-free. Anti-nuclear protests are being held at the prime minister's residence on a regular basis, each Friday evening throughout the summer, with the number of citizens attending the protest increasing each week.
Nuclear energy has become a hot issue for Japanese citizens leading up to the general election with anti-nuclear protests attracting up to tens of thousands of participants at an event.
In what can only be seen
as a hypocritical
and counterproductive move
in light of the new legislation,
Japan has, however, said it will continue with work to complete three new nuclear power reactors, which had already been planned and approved.
The construction of the reactors at three different plants had been suspended after the Fukushima meltdown. Two of the reactors are located at plants in Aomori while the third is in the western district of Shimane.
"We don't intend to withdraw the permission that has already been given by the ministry,"
said Yukio Edano, the minister of economy, trade and industry, on Saturday when he met with local administrators in Aomori, in northern Japan.
Edano added, however, that the start-up of the reactors would be subject to approval by a newly created government commission to regulate nuclear power.
The decision to phase out nuclear power "is regrettable," says Satoru Tanaka, a University of Tokyo nuclear engineer and former president of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan. He says the policy's impact on research is not yet clear. He and his colleagues would like to continue working on advanced, safer reactors. But he admits bringing them into service "would require convincing the public of their safety."
The Japanese media has been divided over the new direction that the energy policy will bring to Japan.
The influential Asahi Shimbun called the nuclear phase-out "realistic", stressing that "nuclear power plants face enormous risks and electric power companies have totally lost the nation's trust".
The mass-circulation Yomiuri Shimbun, however, said the government should first have outlined how it intended to meet the shortfall in energy production.
"It is extremely irresponsible for the government to tout 'zero nuclear power generation' without drawing up concrete steps to secure electric power in a stable manner," it said.
Whilst the policy still has a few more hurdles to overcome, including a review by the entire Cabinet before it is formally approved and the likelihood that the current ruling political party, the Democratic Party of Japan, is likely to be voted out of office in the upcoming elections in the next few months
and that their successors, in all likelihood the Liberal Democratic Party, may rescind the policy,
the weight of public opinion, both domestically within Japan and internationally in the countries with whom Japan does trade, makes it likely that the days of Japan being a nuclear nation, are ending. [youtube]Cb5zT8D-Ppc[/youtube]
The memory of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986 will not fade quickly from popular memory.
Sources:
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/09/japanese-cabinet-panel...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-14/japan-to-phase-out-nuclear-power/4...
http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/-/world/14862592/japan-to-complete-reac...
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