Tokyo: Industry minister Yoji Muto stated on Wednesday that Japan plans to continue restarting nuclear power plants without risk and will use as much renewable energy as possible, indicating that there has n’t been a significant policy change since Shigeru Ishiba’s appointment.
Ishiba, who was sworn in on Tuesday, had pledged to do everything in his power to end atomic energy before winning the Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership election.
He was the only member to reject the use of nuclear energy in Japan, which imports fossil fuels for two-thirds of its power for the country.
But shortly before becoming party chief, and by definition prime minister, Ishiba stopped advocating for zero nuclear electricity, otherwise calling for the use of more renewable energy, including electricity, and for more energy conservation.
” We can use solar power to the utmost, and we will resume nuclear power, the healthy one, as much as possible”, Muto told investigators at his first press event as the minister for business, trade and industry ( METI).
According to Muto, securing power may be” the most important piece of Japan’s progress” as demand for electricity is projected to increase as more data centers and semiconductor factories are established.
Renewable energy, driven by solar, wind and hydropower, accounted for more than a quarter of Japan’s power generation mix last year, with coal and liquefied natural gas ( LNG ) making the bulk of up the rest, according to consultants WoodMackenzie.
Nuclear power accounted for 9 % of the total. Japan shut down all of its nuclear reactor in 2011 after a devastating earthquake and tsunami caused the Fukushima nuclear plant to melt down, making it the worst nuclear catastrophe in history since Chernobyl.
Japan then runs eleven nuclear power reactors, or a second of what it had before the collapse, providing it with almost 11 gigawatt of light. Furnace refreshes were responsible for a 8 % decrease in LNG exports last year, reaching their lowest level in 14 years.
However, imports of LNG and coal used in thermal power plants cost 12.4 trillion yen ($ 86 billion ) last year alone, accounting for 11 % of its total import bill and adding to living costs, an issue Ishiba must deal as prime minister.
Tokyo Electric Power Co ( TEPCO ) is looking to restart its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, the world’s biggest, but lacks approval from the eastern Niigata prefecture whose governor is pushing for more safety assurances.
Muto claimed that TEPCO had not yet addressed all concerns about the safety of the area, but that restarting nuclear plants would help to balance supply, control power prices, and decarbonize.
The future of nuclear power discussions will depend on the dynamics of the ruling LDP group, according to Mika Ohbayashi, director of the Tokyo-based Renewable Energy Institute. ” In terms of energy supply, it ( nuclear power ) can be reduced to zero”, Ohbayashi said, referring to the period more than a year after the Fukushima disaster when Japan stopped all its 54 reactors.
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