All of Japan’s 48 reactors have been suspended amid lingering public fears of nuclear power generation following the nation’s worst atomic accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
Advertisement
The loss of nuclear forced Japan to switch on power plants running on fossil fuels.
Dozens of protestors – including Naoto Kan, Japan’s prime minister during the Fukushima crisis – rallied outside the Sendai plant on Monday, shouting, “we don’t need nuclear plants”, according to the Associated Press. The Japanese government should turn its back on nuclear power and instead opt for an energy policy based on improving energy efficiency and expanding renewable energy.
1 reactor is scheduled to start generating power Friday before reaching full capacity next month.
Two of its reactors on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu are the first to pass tougher safety checks set by the Nuclear Regulation Authority, the agency created after the Fukushima disaster, and to overcome legal challenges.
The reboot of the reactor will involve the control rods being removed on Tuesday, which will allow the process of nuclear fission to begin. To offset the shortfall in power output, the country ramped up imports of oil and gas and fired up more thermal power plants, slowing progress toward reducing its emissions of greenhouse gases.
“There are very strong vested interests to reopen nuclear reactors”.
The Shinzo Abe government’s energy plan relies heavily on nuclear power, setting a goal to have it meet more than 20 per cent of the country’s energy needs by 2030.
Several other reactors have received a safety green light from officials, but battle lines have been drawn with many local communities strongly against restarting reactors in their region.
As well as cutting energy costs, showing it can reboot the industry safely is crucial for Abe’s plans to export nuclear technology, said Malcolm Grimston, a senior research fellow at Imperial College in London. The country has been without nuclear power for the past two and a half years. Last September, the Nuclear Regulation Authority gave formal approval for the plant’s No. 1 and No. 2 reactors to restart, saying the utility has satisfied the new and stricter safety standards for nuclear facilities.
Advertisement
With its nuclear gasoline recycling program nonetheless stalled and plutonium stockpiles triggering worldwide considerations, Japan is beneath strain to make use of as a lot of the stockpiles as potential in its reactors. The question is whether Japan can restart as many as 18 reactors needed to burn enough plutonium, and whether the problem-plagued Rokkasho reprocessing plant in northern Japan starts up. Nuclear experts say this could pose a challenge.
