A World Nuclear News article this week has reported that “the Japan Electric Power Development Corp (J-Power) will resume construction of the Ohma nuclear power plant in Aomori prefecture.”
The J-Power announcement made reference to the revised energy policy announced by the Japanese government as well as the understanding of the local communities as factors in the decision to resume construction.
As I write this, the current situation is Japan’s government has previously announced that all existing reactors will be shut down by 2040. We’ll see how long this shut-down stance remains but for now their announcement suggests two things to me. One: the government will soon approve more restarts of idled reactors. Two: come 2040, the reactors currently under construction will be exempt from the 2040 date.
You also have to bear in mind one very important factor which is that governments and policies change. Nuclear power has played a huge part in Japan’s energy strategy for many years. I’ve written several posts prior to now on the colossal economic and environmental price that the country is paying for keeping its reactor fleet idled and I would be very surprised if, once enough time has passed, the energy policy is not revised in order to retain a greater proportion of nuclear energy.
As ever, don’t hesitate to get in touch with any questions or comments.
Dev Randhawa
