The Guardian reported Tuesday that Japan has released it’s draft energy policy, the first following the 2011 nuclear crisis at Fukushima. Somewhat surprisingly, the nation has not significantly changed its attitude toward nuclear power, despite the environmental and health consequences of its recent accident. The energy policy draft continues to focus on the importance of nuclear, in conjunction with renewable energy, in supplying Japan with its electricity. All 48 of its nuclear plants are currently non-operational pending their meeting new safety requirements. It is expected that Japan will be slightly less dependent on nuclear energy, with more focus on renewable sources, but all plants passing the new safety requirements are expected to come back on line.
In some ways, the continuation of Japan’s use of nuclear energy is surprising and in other ways it is not. This trend doesn’t follow that of the United States, which tends to back off of nuclear energy following each accident or near accident. In the United States, the Fukushima accident has prompted many environmental groups and politicians to call for the end of nuclear power here at home. A similar trend has been observed with previous accidents (such as Chernobyl) or even partial-accidents with few consequences (like Three Mile Island). So it can be hard for us to understand why, despite the clear health and environmental consequences of the Fukushima accident, the Japanese would choose to continue using nuclear power.
On the other hand, Japan does not have many options. According to the EIA, Japan follows only the US and China as a net oil importer and is the world’s largest liquefied natural gas importer due to limited domestic energy resources. Prior to the Fukushima accident, nuclear energy supplied about 26% of power generation and had to be replaced by significantly more expensive fossil fuel resources while the nuclear plants were shut down. Energy imports represented one third of Japan’s import costs in 2012. Nuclear power represents an essentially domestic source of energy, requiring only imports of uranium and plutonium. In addition, while the latest energy policy has focused on increasing the quantity of renewable energy, Japan currently uses little renewable energy. Hydroelectricity represents 16% of total power generation, but other renewables only represented about 3% of total electricity production in 2011.
So while it is difficult to imagine why Japan would be willing to take the risk on nuclear, they are not in much of a position to give up on that sector. It will be interesting to see if the cabinet approves the draft Basic Energy Plan in March, as expected, and if the public will be accepting of this continued push for nuclear.