Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
nuclear power phase-out for the sake of domestic safety when neighboring
nations are continuing with nuclear power expansion programs.
So while the government waits for public opposition to nuclear power
to wane, it continues on with preparations for a return to nuclear power.
Concomitantly, it continues to support a renewable energy FIT program that is
designed to engender animosity. he program, which boasts some of the high-
est FIT premiums in the world, passes along these costs to end-consumers,
engendering a high degree of consumer dissonance. It also does not provide
any mechanisms for coordinated, strategic development of wind power proj-
ects meaning that community opposition and utility opposition remains. Last
but not least, the government has done nothing to reengineer grid manage-
ment to allow renewable energy to lourish. As the situation now stands, for-
proit utilities are being forced to accept stochastic wind power lows into their
respective grids without any economic inducement. In the end, the govern-
ment will be able to say that it made an efort; but there is a diference between
making an efort and making an efort that is designed to succeed.
he true state of afairs at Fukushima may wind up being the decisive
factor regarding the future of Japan's nuclear power program and the pros-
pects for an enhanced role for renewable energy. As of September 2013, the
extent of the radiation leaks was still unclear, but there is already public
alarm that the radioactive material that has been leaking from the plant
is far worse than the government and TEPCO have reported. his new cri-
sis has eroded public conidence that TEPCO is capable of managing the
clean-up, and increased skepticism over the government's sincerity in terms
of transparently overseeing it. If the pollution winds up being even greater
than currently purported or the price tag for cleaning up the Fukushima site
rises signiicantly, the ability of the government to continue down the path
of a nuclear renaissance will be severely inhibited. A nuclear renaissance
necessitates an apathetic Japanese public and that is hard to manufacture
when the Fukushima crisis continues to worsen.
NOTES
1. Economic policy speech by Mr. Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan,
Wednesday, June 19, 2013, www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/96_abe/ statement/201306/
19guildhall_e.html.
2. Valentine, Scott Victor. 2013. “Wind Power Policy in Complex Adaptive Markets.”
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
19 (0): 1-10.
3. Japan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC). 2008. White Paper on Nuclear Energy
2007. Tokyo: Japan Atomic Energy Commission.
4. Amari, Akira. 2006. “Japan: A New National Energy Strategy.”
he OECD
Observer
, 258/259: 6. http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/24430390/
new-national-energy-strategy.
