The Japanese government plans to give a major boost to the revival of the nuclear power sector, a controversial sector that weakened in the country after the 2011 Fukushima disaster but has now returned to the spotlight due to major energy tensions worldwide.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced today that he will begin consultation on the possible construction of “new generation nuclear reactors”, which would be a major shift for Japan.
“The Russian invasion of Ukraine has greatly changed the global energy landscape,” Kishida reasoned in the remarks he made to reporters, and consequently “Japan must consider possible crisis scenarios in the future.”
The Japanese prime minister also called for “maximizing” the use of existing nuclear reactors that have been granted permission by regulators to restart after the Fukushima disaster.
“In addition to ensuring the operation of the ten reactors that have already been restarted, the government will try to do everything necessary” to restart as quickly as possible other old reactors that have received the green light from regulators, he noted. Kisida.
Like many other countries, Japan has faced the problem of a significantly more expensive and difficult energy supply since Russia’s war in Ukraine began exactly six months ago.
While aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050, Japan was also threatened by power shortages this summer due to heatwave temperatures that sent air conditioners running at full blast.
All of Japan’s nuclear power plants had been shut down since the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which was triggered by a powerful earthquake and giant tsunami in the country’s northeast in 2011. Of the 33 reactors that could theoretically operate, only 10 have been restarted in operation after their compliance with significantly increased safety standards.
However, these 10 reactors are not continuously operating and several of them are now undergoing maintenance. In 2020 less than 5% of electricity generated in Japan came from nuclear power, compared to 30% before the Fukushima disaster.
The archipelago is largely energy dependent on fossil fuel imports and at the same time seeks to strengthen its renewable energy sources.
Source: RES-MPE
Source: Capital
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