Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
a series of safety breaches occurred in various nuclear power plants around
the nation, public alarm and media scrutiny was leeting.
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Today, despite elevated public and media scrutiny of the nuclear power
industry, political opposition from inluential actors has crumbled as alarm
over the economy casts a pall over costly initiatives, such as facilitating a
transition away from nuclear power. In the 2012 Japanese election, DPJ
candidate and incumbent Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announced a
campaign pledge to make Japan nuclear free by 2030, an initiative requiring
investment of nearly US$500 billion in renewable energy expansion proj-
ects over two decades.
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Meanwhile, LDP candidate Shinzo Abe emphasized
the importance of facilitating economic recovery above all else. he result
was a landslide victory for the LDP. What is clear from the 2012 election
is that the general public perceives Japan's economic woes to be top pri-
ority and anything that gets in the way of economic recovery (i.e., higher
energy costs) needs to be heavily scrutinized. Since its election, the LDP is
stealthily moving forward with plans to slowly restart the nuclear power
program. Reactors which pass the new safety standards were slated to start
operation again beginning in the fall of 2013,
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but this timeline has been
extended to the fall of 2014 following reports that the radioactive water
leaks at Fukushima were far worse than initially anticipated.
9.5.2 Economic
→
Political
In addition to technological entrenchment, there is currently an enormous
amount of stranded investment in Japan's nuclear power sector. Much
of this investment lies dormant in Japan's idled nuclear power reactors.
Although this is a cost currently borne by Japan's private utilities, which own
the reactors, the government already has a controlling stake in the nation's
largest utility (TEPCO); therefore, a prolonged shutdown of the nation's
reactors will likely require further capital infusion by the government, at
least to shore up TEPCO. If the government phases out nuclear power,
another stranded investment will be the much maligned Rokkasho Nuclear
Waste Reprocessing Plant that is scheduled to start operation in October
2014,
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and which cost US$20 billion and took 20 years to complete. All of
the nuclear power infrastructure—the plants, the waste reprocessing facili-
ties, R&D facilities, and nuclear waste storage facilities—represent inancial
and ideological commitments that make it diicult for Japan's pro-nuclear
politicians to turn away from.
Providentially, the scrutiny over nuclear power sired by the Fukushima
disaster has also engendered a reevaluation of wind power as an option for
