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August 15, 2014

It is now three and a half years since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami led to meltdowns at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and the subsequent shuttering of all 48 of Japan’s nuclear reactors. Yet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s plans to quickly restart that country’s atomic energy program remain stalled. While Japanese businesses have continued to press politicians and bureaucrats to bring plants across the country back online, exactly when any of Japan’s reactors will restart is uncertain.

Last month, the two reactors at the Kyushu Electric Power Company’s Sendai nuclear power plant were the first to pass new, stricter safety tests, but the actual restart date has been pushed back into the winter of 2015. Residents within 5 km of the plant now have potassium-iodide pills in the event of another accident, and some nine towns within 30 km of the plant have finally designed evacuation plans in case of a meltdown. These changes were a direct result of the Fukushima accident, which also spurred the creation of a new, independent nuclear industry regulator.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) replaced a patchwork of bureaucrats who controlled the industry before the disaster — many of whom were simultaneously tasked with promoting the field through incentives and grants to local communities. The NRA, staffed primarily with civil servants from the Ministry of the Environment, has been widely viewed as much more strict than, for example, the Agency of Natural Resources and Energy, which was located within the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. The NRA’s headquarters are far outside the Japanese equivalent of the Beltway, and the agency has worked hard to demonstrate its autonomy from the industry.

Beyond changing the regulatory environment in Japan, the Fukushima meltdowns caused a sea change in public opinion on nuclear power. Before the accidents, some two-thirds of respondents regularly supported increasing the number of nuclear power plants. Now, the same percentage of residents oppose the use of nuclear power in Japan, and a national poll at the end of July found nearly 60 percent of respondents opposed the restart of the Sendai nuclear plant.

Communities that directly host the facilities continue to — with some exceptions — support the restart of these facilities. Their support derives primarily from financial reasons: the central government provides up to $10 million a year to the small, rural, coastal towns that have these projects in their back yards. Research published by one economist showed that even for these communities the actual benefits to individuals vary widely.

10 years ago. Rating: 7
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There is no uncertainty in the verifiable truth and the will and way of God. The sack of lies and distortions in this are so onerous that all who know the facts are sickened on BS and constrained needlessly under secrecy.

10 years ago. Rating: 2
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