Category: Nuclear

Japan’s government on Tuesday released an energy policy document in which nuclear power is considered an important electricity source. The plan is a toned-down revision of a draft document released in December, which said nuclear power also serves as a "foundation" for the stability of the country’s energy supply, Kyodo News Service reports. The government is required to review its energy plan at least every three years. The last plan, in 2010, called for Japan to boost its reliance on nuclear power to about 50 percent of its total electricity in 2030. Prior to the Fukushima nuclear power plant crisis, triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, nuclear power provided nearly 30 percent of Japan’s electricity. The plan released Tuesday does not include any numerical targets for Japan’s medium- to long-term energy mix. "It was impossible to plan any energy mix, […]

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Nuclear power should serve as Japan’s "key base-load power source" along with coal, hydro and renewables as part of the country’s energy plan for the next 20 years, the government said in a final energy policy plan released Tuesday. In the final report which came out after a series of reviews, the government also said nuclear reactors that meet the safety standards set by the nuclear regulatory body should make progress on restarting. Before this final report, an energy policy committee at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry released a draft plan in December saying nuclear power would continue to be Japan’s "key base power source" from the perspective of stable supplies and cost, drawing comments from the public as well as policy makers. The plan released Tuesday will now be examined by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party before the Cabinet approval. The […]

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Nuclear power should serve as Japan’s "key base-load power source" along with coal, hydro and renewables as part of the country’s energy plan for the next 20 years, the government said in a final energy policy plan released Tuesday. In the final report which came out after a series of reviews, the government also said nuclear reactors that meet the safety standards set by the nuclear regulatory body should make progress on restarting. Before this final report, an energy policy committee at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry released a draft plan in December saying nuclear power would continue to be Japan’s "key base power source" from the perspective of stable supplies and cost, drawing comments from the public as well as policy makers. The plan released Tuesday will now be examined by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party before the Cabinet approval. The […]

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Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) , operator of the crisis-ridden Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant, said it found a new leak near the tanks holding contaminated water at the disaster site. The utility, which serves 29 million customers in the Tokyo metropolitan area, is collecting soil where the leak occurred and doesn’t believe any water reached the ocean, company executives said at a briefing in Tokyo. About 100 metric tons (26,400 gallons) of water may have escaped a concrete barrier, the company said. “Such a water leak was found despite a variety of measures taken by the company,” Masayuki Ono, an official at the utility’s nuclear power and plant division, said. “We are sorry to have caused concern,” he said. The finding is a reminder of the task still facing Tokyo Electric as the utility, known as Tepco, battles to manage the plant almost three years since the earthquake […]

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Several industrialized countries have turned their backs on nuclear power as a result of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, including one that has already begun permanently shutting functioning plants. That country is not Japan. “Germany chose to get rid of nuclear power because of Fukushima, while the United States is still in favor, but what about Japan, where the accident took place?” said Jun Tateno, who has written several books on nuclear power. “We still have not had a proper public debate about the most fundamental question: Do we want nuclear power’s low-cost electricity for growth, or do we want a safer, nuclear-free society?” Many analysts had hoped that last Sunday’s vote to choose the next governor of Tokyo would provide just such a forum to that question, which lies at the heart of Japan’s struggle to find its economic footing after two decades of malaise. But the […]

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The victory of Yoichi Masuzoe in Tokyo’s gubernatorial election Sunday could be a boost for Japan’s return to nuclear power, though the anti-nuclear camp still urges against it. Masuzoe wants less dependence on nuclear power in the long run, while his main rivals, former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa and Kenji Utsunomiya, a former head of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, favored an immediate end to nuclear power. Utsunomiya won about 983,200 votes and Hosokawa about 956,000 votes against Masuzoe’s approximately 2,112,000 votes, the Japan Times reported Monday. All of Japan’s 48 operable nuclear reactors remain offline, pending safety checks after the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami. Prior to the Fukushima crisis, nuclear power provided nearly 30 percent of Japan’s electricity Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe , who has called for restarting Japan’s idled nuclear […]

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"Oil and gas production are down despite combined capital expenses of a half-trillion dollars in the past five years.” — WSJ

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Seaborne radiation from Japan ’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant will wash up on the West Coast of the U.S. this year. That’s raising concerns among some Americans including the residents of the San Francisco Bay Area city of Fairfax, which passed a resolution on Dec. 6 calling for more testing of coastal seafood. At the same time, oceanographers and radiological scientists say such concerns are unwarranted given existing levels of radiation in the ocean. The runoff from the Japanese plant will mingle with radiation released by other atomic stations, such as Diablo Canyon in California . Under normal operations, Diablo Canyon discharges more radiation into the sea, albeit of a less dangerous isotope, than the Fukushima station, which suffered the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. “There’s a point to be made that we live in a radioactive world and the ocean just has radioactive isotopes in […]

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