Nuclear energy and nuclear safety

Committee:
Energy
status:
Some progress
Published:
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced a plan on August 24th 2022 of making up to a total of 17 reactors operational by summer 2023 and constructing new “next generation” nuclear power plants. Of the 33 currently considered to be operable, 12 have so far been restarted, all pressurised water reactors. Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is developing a design of "SRZ-1200", a 1.2-million-kilowatt advanced light water reactor with Kansai EPCO, Hokkaido EPCO, Shikoku EPCO and Kyushu EPCO, to develop a next-generation nuclear power reactor. The consortium aims for mid-2030 completion. Also, The Tohoku Electric Power Company plans to reactivate the Onagawa-2 reactor (825 MW) in February 2024 and Chugoku plans to restart is reactor of Shimane 2 (BWR-5 with a 2436MWt thermal capacity) in August 2024., after seismic reinforcement and safety tests to be cleared. It would be the first BWRs to be restarted since 2011. Japan's restart of more nuclear power plants would help ease Europe's energy supply fears during the winter as more liquefied natural gas (LNG) will become available to the global market. On the other hand, electricity bill rising for the past year of 20% for households and of 30% for businesses may enhance a new lead for Japanese government’s policies in the upcoming years. In fact, it pushes the government to reimplement subsidies to the Japanese Utilities and cash pay-outs to households and firms. It is worth noting that all the Japanese utilities that have restarted shutdown nuclear power plants (Kansai, Kyushu and Shikoku EPCOs) returned to profit in the 2023 financial year. The more restarts there are over the next two fiscal years, the more price rises can be contained accordingly. This may be affected by the sharp falls in the yen that pushes up prices of imported goods. Mainly, costs for coal have tripled within the last year, and the price of natural gas has doubled in the same period.

Recommendations

  • Japan should increase cooperation with international organisations to improve global nuclear safety. Japan should strengthen its cooperation with international organisations to improve the nuclear safety culture, with a view to enhancing dialogue between operators and the safety authority. This direct dialogue is necessary to share safety issues and risks in a way that is both constructive and demanding.
  • Japan should continue and accelerate its efforts to restart a maximum of idled reactors to achieve the 2030 decarbonisation objectives.
  • Japan should promote fuel multi-recycling to reduce waste and further boost energy self-sufficiency.
  • The Japanese Government should commit proactively to put into practice its long-term plan for the replacement of ageing reactors to achieve the energy mix targets, including maintaining sufficient manpower to restart the current fleet and its future replacement.
  • Last but not least, the more space is made available on existing sites, the more new capacity can be built in the future. This should encourage the Japanese government and operators to continue and accelerate their efforts to dismantle and decommission obsolete reactors, particularly large used components. The expertise developed in Europe could be put to good use in this context.