Japan still depends on nuclear power

By NIK MARTIN

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake hit Japan, causing a massive tsunami that flooded the reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The most severe nuclear accident since Chernobyl sparked a new wave of anti-nuclear sentiment and most of the country’s nuclear plants were taken offline for urgent safety checks. Within days of the disaster, thousands of kilometers away, the German government announced a 10-year plan to phase out nuclear power, having been lobbied on the issue for decades by environmental campaigners. More than 11 years on from the disaster, despite Japan sitting firmly in the so-called ring of fire — a path along the Pacific Ocean characterised by active volcanoes and frequent, earthquakes — this summer Tokyo recommitted to nuclear power.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that Japan would restart up to nine nuclear reactors by winter and seven others by next summer, citing the need for secure energy supplies in the wake of the Ukraine war and help meet Japan’s net-zero targets. “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has vastly transformed the world’s energy landscape. To overcome an imminent crisis caused by a power supply crunch, we must take the utmost steps to mobilise all possible policies in the coming years and prepare for any emergency,” Kishida warned in August. Longer-term proposals announced since then include extending the lifespan of nuclear reactors beyond the current 60 years — which some scientists say will be a lower risk if you count the years they were offline — and developing new smaller, safer, nuclear reactors.

“You get the sense that Japan’s political leaders were biding their time, waiting for public acceptance to improve and the broader context to change before they recommitted to nuclear technology,” David Hess, policy analyst at the World Nuclear Association, told DW. The context has changed. Gas supplies to Asia were already tight last winter due to the after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global energy crisis further spiked natural gas prices to record highs as Asian and European countries battled to secure supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as an alternative to Russian pipeline gas.

Behind the Japanese decision is also the country’s historic reliance on nuclear due to a lack of conventional energy resources, like oil and gas. “Japan doesn’t have much coal and oil, so they’ve always imported a very large percentage of their energy demand — not only electricity [also transport and heating],” Jim Smith, a professor in environmental sciences at the UK’s University of Portsmouth, told DW.

Before the Fukushima meltdown, about a third of Japan’s power generation came from nuclear. By 2020, the figure had dropped to less than 5%. Tokyo has set a new target for nuclear to provide up to 22% of its electricity supply by 2030. The limits of intermittent renewable energies and lack of available land to massively expand hydroelectric, solar and wind power were also cited for nuclear’s planned resurgence. Even so, the government last year raised the target for renewables in electricity generation to 36-38% by 2030, a doubling from 2019.

Hess from the World Nuclear Association told DW that Japan’s decision was part of a “global shift” back toward atomic power, citing recent decisions by Poland, the Czech Republic, Britain, Sweden and France. He noted how bipartisan support is also growing for nuclear in the US.

“A whole group of newcomer countries are making progress towards building their first reactors, including Egypt, Uzbekistan and the Philippines,” he said. “If anything, Japan has been slow to react. So the momentum is perhaps helping to convince them that nuclear energy is being broadly embraced globally as a long-term carbon climate and energy security solution.”

This article was provided by Deutsche Welle