Japan after Fukushima: crazy about nuclear power... again!
“Our basic policy is that every minister is a reconstruction minister... We reaffirmed our commitment to work for the revival of Fukushima and northeastern Japan.”
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
Nuclear power in Japan, a long history...
Japan has a long history with the nuclear power, it has never been a peaceful and happy tale. The 6th and 9th of August 1945, United States launched two atomic bombs on respectively Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The most important nuclear countries after the war
As a result, such a panic developed rightly in the country that Ishiro Honda, a film maker, shot a movie about a lizard becoming giant due to irradiation: Godzilla, one of the most popular iconic figures in the pop culture nowadays was born.
Even if Tokyo understood the nuclear energy risks, and in the exact opposite of what was happened in Germany while students protested vigorously against the nuclear, Japan became one of the most important nuclear countries after the war, surpassed only by United States and France.
Japan, one of the most important nuclear countries after the war
Nuclear reactors are so sophisticated to build and design that only few world companies can produce them. In the 1960, Japan was helped in this task by General Electric, an American energy company and Westington, a British one that dominated the market. Soon after, Toshiba, Hitachi and Mitsubishi started their own nuclear generation models. In 1986, suite to the Chernobyl disaster, pro nuclear advocated that the issue was not the nuclear but low Soviet Union norms that created this catastrophe.
In 2011, after an earthquake, a tsunami struck Fukushima, destroying their nuclear reactors. The immediate aftermath was to shut down all nuclear power plants in the country for safety purposes and to find other forms of energy. Japan thought of fossil gas but the supply was so strong that the prices increased by 20%. Moreover, no renewable energy couldn’t be used as no infrastructures were designed for this purpose.
Japan and the renewable energy
Recently, Japan proposed a 22% plan based on renewable energy dependency in 2030. It lacks ambition regarding European investment in this area where this figures would be achieved in 2020. Local production of renewable energy is the other issue. This energy is based in wind or sun that are too much fluctuant to be profitable. Japan had two solutions: continuing to buy expansive and polluting resources or coming back to nuclear uses. In 2018, Japan opened 5 new nuclear reactors and foresees on opening even more.
Indeed, when a nuclear reactor is turned on, it always produces the same amount of energy, no more no less, on an ongoing basis.
Turning off a reactor is very expansive and only happens when a risk of accident is very important. This is why nuclear reactor are at the center of the electric system basis. Coal, gas and green energy are to be adjusted based on the energy demands on a particular basis day. While green energy depends on the weather, coal and gas depend on the market prices which fluctuate daily. A little piece of uranium is needed to have nuclear power that is why prices fluctuations on this material do not weigh much.
Going back to the nuclear...
The result is that Japan, followed by South Korea, is going back to the nuclear. In South Korea, the specialized companies on nuclear issues are Hyunday, Dosean and Kepco that manufactured their own nuclear power plants. Today, a relationship between South Korea and United Arab Emirates has been achieved and they celebrated the completion of Baraka, a huge power plant infrastructure in the Middle East with a 20 billion cost, the same amount as the Olympic Games. Fossil gas plants can generate the same amount up to 20 times cheaper, but, producing a Kilowatt of electricity with nuclear power is a strategic way to display an energetic transition. The wish of India is to be at the same level than Japan regarding the nuclear production. As it faced opposition from the United States, India went to Russia and France to have their requirements satisfied. This country has naturally uranium in its soil, that’s one the reason for which it produced an atomic bomb with the help of Rosatom, a Russian energy company specialized into enrich uranium. Rosatom also helped Bangladesh developed their first nuke on 2nd nuclear power plant.
Finally, in a context of climate changes where it is time to show an energy transition, nuclear power still has a prosperous future.
https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/why-some-nations-choose-nuclear-power
https://energybangla.com/india-to-meet-uranium-demand-through-mining-import/
https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/bangladesh-starts-constructing-its-first-nuclear-power-plant
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12720219
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201805140045.html
https://dailyenergyinsider.com/news/16285-japan-restarts-five-nuclear-power-reactors-in-2018/
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201805220043.html
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/UF-India-plans-tenfold-uranium-output-growth-0803187.html
https://www.indiandefensenews.in/2018/07/rosatom-begins-construction-of-2nd-unit.html
https://www.pressherald.com/2019/04/14/japans-pm-visits-fukushima-nuke-plant-in-revival-message/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiVqwKsu8Wg