nuclear-news

Japanese government panel urges “embracing of nuclear power”

Japan should embrace nuclear power, government panel says Asahi Shimbun, 14 Dec 13 Japan should embrace nuclear power as an “important and fundamental” energy source, a government panel said on Dec. 13, in advice that looks almost certain to be accepted, despite widespread anti-nuclear feeling after the Fukushima disaster.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is keen to restart Japan’s idled nuclear reactors to cut the cost of fossil fuel imports used by power stations, which have swelled the trade deficit to a record and driven up electricity prices.

The recommendation, if adopted, could put atomic power back into Japan’s energy mix after the previous government decided to abandon it following triple meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant north of Tokyo, the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986…….The panel is headed by Akio Mimura, honorary chairman of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp, Japan’s largest steel maker and one of its heaviest electricity users.

Opposition to atomic energy remains high and all of Japan’s political parties, including the LDP’s coalition partner, oppose nuclear power, which provided about 30 percent of electricity before the Fukushima disaster in 2011.

Prior to the disaster the government had envisaged increasing the contribution of nuclear energy to 50 percent.http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201312130094

December 16, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, politics