Tokyo Eleven years after the Fukushima disaster, Japan is talking about nuclear power again. Because the new head of government Fumio Kishida is trying to position the form of energy against silent but tenacious public resistance as an effective means in climate policy.
Even in the election campaign for the general election, he called for a revival of nuclear power. Now he is implementing his election promise.
At the beginning of the year it leaked out that the state atomic energy agency (JAEA) and the power plant builder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) want to participate in the construction of a new power plant for the US nuclear power plant builder Terra Power, which is also supported by Microsoft founder Bill Gates. For the first time, the young company wants to realize a new type of reactor that is supposed to be less expensive and safer to operate – the molten salt reactor.
After ten difficult years, this step would lead Japan’s nuclear industry back to the top of the world, at least in the development of so-called “breeders”, even without domestic projects.
Fast breeder reactors have long been considered an important link in a closed nuclear fuel cycle. In addition to electricity, they also generate other fissile materials and use uranium far more effectively than other reactor technologies. Molten salt reactors can theoretically even produce more fissile material than they consume themselves.
Fear of crises: nuclear power as a way out of resource poverty
Resource-poor Japan therefore pushed this technology for a long time as a future project of its ambitious nuclear program in order to make itself less dependent on energy imports. The country imports almost all raw materials and is therefore extremely susceptible to crises and wars that can disrupt shipping. The reactors only require the construction of a plutonium cycle and have proven to be difficult to implement.
In the past few years, our own research had stalled. Japan’s research reactor Monju has only produced electricity for 250 days since 1994 due to two incidents and was finally released for dismantling in 2016. After that, Japan first tried to continue breeding research with France. But after Paris stopped plans for an experimental reactor, the government turned to the US as a partner.
According to media reports, the JAEA and MHI want to participate in the ambitious US project not only with money, but also with technology transfer. Terra Power is expected to complete a 345 megawatt reactor in the US state of Wyoming by 2028.
Even if there are many critics of nuclear power in Japan: ten years after Fukushima, the government is again relying on nuclear power.
(Photo: AP)
After the triple core meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2011, nuclear power, which until then had provided 30 percent of Japan’s electricity, seemed to end up in the graveyard of energy policy. But now she is returning.
Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister, wanted to continue to rely on nuclear power as a pillar of the energy strategy after his election victory at the end of 2012. In 2030, it should again produce 20 to 22 percent of energy and thus help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. But to date only nine piles are back on the grid, supplying a full three percent of the electricity. On the other hand, the share of solar and wind power has already jumped to almost 20 percent, despite only half-hearted state subsidies.
After taking office in September 2020, Abe’s successor, Yoshihide Suga, even fueled the hopes of those opposed to nuclear power for a step-by-step nuclear phase-out. Because he not only tightened Japan’s climate protection goals, but also put two nuclear power skeptics in key positions with Shinjiro Koizumi as environment minister and Taro Kono as reform minister.
Japan’s Prime Minister Kishida is sidelining nuclear power skeptics
But Kishida got rid of the two politicians immediately after taking office and handed over responsibility for energy policy back to the nuclear-friendly Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry. The decision was groundbreaking. Because the Japanese government wants to adopt a new national security strategy this year, possibly with far-reaching energy policy decisions.
Energy policy should play a prominent role in the discussion about national security, says Narumi Shibata, an expert at the Asia Pacific Initiative (API), a Japanese think tank with close ties to the economy. “Resource-limited Japan should have as many energy sources as possible,” she says. So also nuclear power.
On March 11, 2011, after an earthquake and a tsunami, several core meltdowns occurred at the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant.
(Photo: dpa)
The domestic political challenges for a renewed expansion of nuclear power still exist. The construction of a new reactor, in particular, without nuclear power threatening to be extinct by 2050, is difficult to implement. According to an opinion poll by the newspaper “Asahi” last February, 53 percent of the Japanese were already against restarting shutdown reactors.
But under Kishida, voices like the Shibatas have the best chance of being heard. Because the head of government speaks for the majority of MPs in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which controls parliament. And global attempts to position nuclear power as a contribution to reducing emissions are also strengthening Japan’s nuclear lobby again.
More: The myth of nuclear power: Bill Gates is wrong five times over