Japanese local authorities approved the restart of the world’s biggest nuclear plant on Friday for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Hideyo Hanazumi, governor of Niigata province where the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant is located, told a news conference he “would approve” the resumption, which will need final permission by Japan’s nuclear regulator. The plant was taken offline when Japan pulled the plug on nuclear power after a colossal earthquake and tsunami sent three reactors at the Fukushima atomic plant into meltdown in 2011.
However, the resource-poor nation now wants to revive atomic energy to reduce its heavy dependence on fossil fuels, achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and meet growing energy needs from artificial intelligence. Fourteen reactors, mostly in western and southern regions, have resumed operation since the post-Fukushima shutdown under strict safety standards. The 400-hectare (1 000-acre) Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant on the Sea of Japan coast facing the Korean peninsula would be the first restart for Fukushima operator Tepco since the disaster.
The huge facility in central Japan has been fitted out with a 15-metre (50-foot) wall in case of tsunamis, new power backup systems on higher ground and other measures. Before the 2011 quake and tsunami, which killed around 18 000 people, nuclear power generated about a third of Japan’s electricity, with fossil fuels contributing most of the rest. Yoko Mulholland of climate think-tank E3G said that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who came to power last month, is more focused than previous leaders on restarting nuclear power. “Takaichi places nuclear power capacity build-out and energy self-sufficiency more centrally in energy policy, without much emphasis on renewables expansion,” she said.
Read Full Article on The Citizen
