Kyushu Electric Power turned on a reactor yesterday at its Sendai nuclear power plant, about 1,000km south-west of Tokyo – the farthest of Japan’s reactors from the capital.
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There are protests both outside Sendai NPP and the residence of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo.
Sendai’s No. 2 reactor is set to be restarted later this year.
But their calls went unheeded.
Since the closure, residents have been relying on other energy sources, but the Japanese government said the costs have been too high, and the fossil fuels used have generated more carbon emissions than nuclear would. He wants nuclear to provide 20 to 22 per cent of the country’s electricity by 2030, compared with 30 per cent before the Fukushima disaster. The simple fact is that without government backing, like the Price-Anderson Act here in the US, nuclear power would be impossible, because no private insurance company will cover it.
Governments have offered differing answers.
The Sendai No 1 reactor is scheduled to start generating power on Friday and reach full capacity next month.
The meltdown took place after a powerful quake and tsunami hit the region.
Though much of the nuclear conversation in India has recently veered towards nuclear liability and the import of the latest Generation III or III+ reactors from France and Russian Federation, what makes the mandate of Bhavini so exciting is that it represents a second dawn of the nuclear age.
Beyond nuclear, one novel long-term solution for Japan’s energy problem could be commercial-scale hydrogen production from seawater, powered by wind turbines.
Oversight overhaul or business as usual?
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, which was part of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) was widely seen as weak and entangled in crony back-scratching with nuclear utilities.
A water-warped tsunami alert sign found on the beaches of Fukushima prefecture.
Japan has restarted its first nuclear reactor since the Fukushima disaster in March, 2011.
With safety measures more stringent than those taken before the Fukushima disaster, it can be said the danger of a serious accident occurring at the plant has been markedly reduced. Fukushima caused Germany to mothball its nuclear power programme and embrace solar and wind.
What are some of the challenges of restarting a nuclear reactor after a prolonged shutdown?
Other shortcomings of the new safety regulations surfaced in Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
Similar to the answer to the Chernobyl calamity in 1986, realms around the globe replied with the use of heightened fear regarding nuclear electric power. Some areas have been cleaned up, but decontamination work often needs to be repeated, and some remain off-limits.
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In commenting on the Sendai plant, Yukio Edano, secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, said, “I don’t think there is a need to resume operations in a compelling and hasty manner”.
