nuclear-news

 Renewable’s time is now, expert says, Goal should be 100% reliance on alternative energy by 2050, Japan Times, By ERIKO ARITA, May 14, 2011Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s request that Chubu Electric Power Co. shut down the Hamaoka nuclear power plant was valuable, though he should have reached this decision much sooner after the Fukushima crisis, according to an expert on nuclear and renewable energy. “Kan’s decision was late, compared with that of German Chancellor (Angela) Merkel,” Tetsunari Iida, executive director of the Tokyo-based nonprofit organization Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies, said this week in an interview.

Merkel decided to shut down seven old reactors in Germany on March 15, four days after the massive earthquake and tsunami hit Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Iida, a former engineer at Kobe Steel Ltd. who designed the dry storage casks for holding spent nuclear fuel at the Fukushima plant, is proposing to terminate all nuclear power plants in Japan and shift to renewable energy sources.

“Given the safety problems (posed by natural disasters), the government should shut down nuclear power plants in Japan,” said Iida, who has been discussing energy policies with several bureaucrats in the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Trade.

Iida and ISEP researchers estimate that Chubu Electric can provide 30.59 million kilowatts without nuclear power, enough to cover this summer’s projected demand of 26.37 million kilowatts.

This can be done by operating all of its thermal power plants and buying surplus electricity from large manufacturers in the Chubu region, who run their own power stations, they say.

This is a feasible arrangement that other power monopolies, not just Chubu Electric, should be able to emulate, Iida said……..http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110514f1.html