Post by
d2dgw on Apr 10, 2014 10:28pm
Japan decides new energy policy
April 11, 2014 10:56 am JST Japan decides new energy policy that supports use of nuclear power TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The government on Friday decided on an energy policy that labels nuclear power as an important source of electricity, retracting a nuclear phase-out goal upheld by its predecessor after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi complex disaster. The Basic Energy Plan sets the stage for the government to move ahead to restart nuclear reactors, all of which are now offline amid safety concerns, while reaffirming the continuity of the country's spent fuel recycling projects that have not made headway. The move has been expected since the pro-nuclear Liberal Democratic Party returned to power in December 2012, but the government spent several more months than initially expected before deciding on the plan as draft documents stirred controversy among lawmakers who saw them as too strongly pro-nuclear in tone. After going through some revisions, the government decided to define nuclear power as an "important base-load power source" that is cheap in terms of operation costs and can stably generate electricity continuously through the day. As for the policy direction, the government said it will "proceed with the reactivation of nuclear power plants" that have satisfied what the government calls the world's toughest regulatory standards, and at the same time pledged to "reduce nuclear dependence as much as possible." It also left open the possibility of allowing the construction of new reactors, saying in the plan that the government will "assess the amount of nuclear power that should be secured" such as to ensure a stable energy supply in a resource-scarce country. While admitting Japan has faced difficulties to materialize its long-standing fuel recycling policy, the energy plan highlighted the need to pursue plans to reprocess spent uranium fuel and reuse the extracted plutonium and uranium as reactor fuel. On the trouble-plagued Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor, which has been developed to play a key role in fuel recycling, the government said the facility should serve as a center for research to reduce the volume of nuclear waste and to improve technologies related to nonproliferation. Apparently to fend off criticism the government is irresponsible to turn to nuclear power without finding a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste generated through reprocessing, the plan said the state will play "a proactive" role to resolve the stalled process. The government did not include specific percentages of the country's future energy mix in the plan, citing the difficulty to foresee at the moment the number of reactors that will be safe enough to restart and the amount of renewable energy available. But to show its desire to boost renewable energy, the government promised to seek to introduce such energy sources "farther above" the level aimed at in the past, adding a footnote that the previous Basic Energy Plan decided on in 2010 expected renewables to account for about 20 percent of the total electricity demand in 2030. Japan has had a Basic Energy Plan since 2003. The government is legally required to check the plan at least once every three years and revise it if necessary. The previous plan aimed to boost the nation's reliance on nuclear power to some 50 percent by 2030. Before the Fukushima disaster, nuclear power supplied about 30 percent of the total electricity supply. In 2012, the government led by the Democratic Party of Japan decided on what it called an "energy strategy" aiming to phase out nuclear power by the end of the 2030s. But the landmark decision triggered strong opposition from the business world, and the government at that time did not go so far as to revise the 2010 Basic Energy Plan that was expected to stipulate the details to realize the strategy.