21 Apr (NucNet): Japan’s Cabinet has approved a basic energy plan that calls for nuclear energy to be a key baseload power source as long as its safety can be assured.
The Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (Jaif) said on 21 April 2014 that the plan sees nuclear energy as “a quasi-domestic energy source” offering excellent supply stability and efficiency, along with low operational costs that barely fluctuate. Nuclear also emits no greenhouse gases in the process of generating energy, the plan says.
The plan was released earlier this year in draft form, but at the time Jaif said “adjustments” needed to be made with coalition ruling parties, after which the final plan was discussed and decided upon by the full Cabinet.
The final plan says decisions by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) on whether or not individual nuclear plants meet safety standards will be respected and that “operations will be resumed accordingly”.
The NRA, an independent body created in 2012 in response to the March 2011 accident at Fukushima-Daiichi, is working to speed up the restart of some of the nation’s offline nuclear reactors. The NRA said it would create “a priority list” of nuclear power stations which meet the earthquake and tsunami criteria, which will help move some nuclear facilities forward in the restart process.
Regulatory officials will compile reports on a handful of prioritised plants. The reports will then be put forward for public comment for an additional four weeks, a statement said. The NRA will also hold town hall meetings in local communities where plants are based to field any scientific and technical questions.
Japan has 50 commercial nuclear reactors, but only two, Kansai Electric Power Company’s Ohi-3 and Ohi-4, have been restarted since the Fukushima-Daiichi accident. They have since been taken offline for scheduled refuelling and maintenance
The NRA is in the process of reviewing reactors to confirm that they meet new nuclear safety standards, which came into force on 8 July 2013.
