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Can quake-prone Japan ever embrace nuclear energy again?

Japan Times, By River Akira Davis and Hisako Ueno. The New York Times 4 Nov 24

A decade after one of the most devastating atomic energy disasters in history, Japan was finally getting closer to reviving nuclear power.

Around 2022, a majority of the public began to express support for restarting the nation’s nuclear plants, most of which have remained offline since an earthquake and tsunami caused a nuclear meltdown in Fukushima Prefecture in 2011. The governing Liberal Democratic Party pushed forward with plans to not only restart idled plants, but also build new ones.

The LDP made an urgent call to advance nuclear energy, which it said would help the heavily fossil-fuel-dependent country meet growing energy demands and fulfill its pledge to cut carbon emissions.

Then, this year, a series of disasters reminded many in Japan of their deep fears about nuclear energy, and the LDP lost their majority in the influential lower chamber of parliament. The fate of nuclear power in the country is again uncertain.

In January, the country’s deadliest earthquake in over a decade struck the Noto Peninsula. More than 400 people died, and many buildings were damaged, including an idled nuclear power plant.

In August, a tremor in southern Japan prompted experts to warn that the long-anticipated Nankai Trough megaquake, predicted to kill hundreds of thousands, could be imminent.

“With earthquakes erupting across the country, it is so clear that nuclear power is a harm to our safety,” said Hajime Matsukubo, secretary-general of the Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center in Tokyo. “This was made evident in 2011 and again during the Noto earthquake.”

A poll conducted by the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper a few months after the Noto earthquake revealed that 45% of respondents opposed restarting Japan’s nuclear plants, surpassing the 36% who supported it.

After the LDP’s losses in parliamentary elections Sunday, the party has less than a month to form a minority government or recruit other allies to regain a majority. The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, which won the second-most seats behind the LDP in the recent election, strongly opposes plans for Japan to build new nuclear reactors.

Within the next five months, Japan will release a revised energy plan that will define the nation’s target energy mix heading toward 2040. That means that the nascent government — in whatever shape it ultimately assumes — will be forced to confront two long-standing questions that have proved largely impossible to reconcile.

Is nuclear energy, widely considered [?] clean and [?] affordable, the best option for Japan — a nation heavily dependent on fossil fuels yet prone to frequent earthquakes and tsunamis? And if so, how can government leaders sell this to a populace still haunted by the memories of nuclear disaster?…………………………………………………………………………….  https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/11/02/japan/society/nuclear-fears-quake-prone-japan/

November 6, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, safety