Revolutionary Energy and Environment Strategy of Japan

Japan announced its plans in September 2012 to end its reliance on nuclear power within 30 years, in a historic policy shift prompted by the triple meltdown at the Fukushima power plant of 2011.

The move to close all 50 of the country’s functioning reactors by around 2040 marks a dramatic change of course by a country that had previously championed atomic energy, putting Japan alongside Germany and Switzerland, which also turned away from nuclear power following the disaster.

• Japan, the world’s third biggest user of nuclear power before the disaster, had planned to increase nuclear’s share of the energy mix to 50% by 2030.
  
• But the country’s attachment to nuclear power was severely weakened after the Fukushima accident sent radioactive materials into the ocean and atmosphere, contaminated the food and water supply, and forced the evacuation of 160,000 residents. The decision comes after two months of public consultations and the largest anti-nuclear demonstrations Japan has ever seen.
  

Analysis: Revolutionary Energy and Environment Strategy

The report named the “Revolutionary Energy and Environment Strategy” passed by cabinet of Japanese government seek to eliminate nuclear power through greater reliance on renewable energy, conservation, and use of fossil fuels. One of the key pillars of the new strategy is to achieve a society that does not depend on nuclear energy as soon as possible.

• As plants reach their lifespan of 40 years, the policy calls for them to be taken out of service, with all plants off-line “within the 2030s.” In addition no new plants will be built.
  
• The plan calls for renewable energy to comprise about 30% of Japan’s future energy mix — an eightfold rise from 2010 levels — and the development of sustainable ways to use fossil fuels.
  
• Japan aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 20% from 1990 levels and to reduce energy consumption through greater efficiency by about 10% from 2010 levels.
  
• Under the policy, a new nuclear regulatory body will adopt toughened standards to ensure that plants are safe enough be restarted.
  
• Uranium enrichment and reprocessing would continue amid ongoing discussions with local authorities and the international community.
  
• The move away from nuclear has caused concern among Japan’s allies. Japan provides nuclear technology expertise to companies in the U.S., while France and Britain, which reprocess its spent nuclear fuel, have sought assurances that it will continue to accept high-level radioactive waste created by reprocessing.
  

Issues and Challenges:

The government had been considering several options: whether to close all the plants over time or to maintain enough reactors to provide a smaller but still substantial percentage of the country’s electricity needs. Before the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, Japan depended on its reactors for about 30 percent of its electricity and had planned to raise that share to more than 50 percent by 2030. Several challenges stand in front of government of Japan however in actualizing its strategy:

• And although the government said reactors would be closed after life spans of 40 years, it also said that exemptions could be granted, suggesting that the 2040 deadline was flexible. (By comparison, Germany, which in 2010 relied on reactors for 26 percent of its electricity, was rattled enough by the Fukushima disaster to announce a move away from nuclear power by 2022.)
  
• The energy plan underscores the challenges Japan faces in extricating itself from nuclear power.If idled reactors were permanently closed this year, power companies would be hit with losses totaling $55.9 billion, making at least four of the utilities insolvent, according to the government’s Agency for Natural Resources and Energy. Because the industry is tightly regulated, allowing almost no competition, the country relies on those power companies and can hardly afford to have them go bankrupt.
  

The 2040 time frame would allow most of the existing reactors to live out their 40-year life span, heading off costly losses for their operators. Japanese utilities have already been saddled with the huge costs of buying oil and natural gas to meet the nuclear shortfall since the reactors were taken offline, a burden that would be alleviated once their reactors are restarted.