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One year after Fukushima, Japan nearly nuke free
photo by Greg Webb/IAEA Imagebank (Flickr CC)
Of Japan’s 54 nuclear power reactors, only one is currently operating, following the shutdown of a Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactor by Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The remaining nuclear reactor still in operation is expected to be taken offline in early May.
Japan’s about face turn from nuclear power of course follows the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in March 2011, which saw Level 7 Nuclear Events at three of its reactors.
The earthquake and subsequent tsunami that caused the meltdowns at Fukushima are not the only earthquake-related nuclear power troubles that Japan has faced. The recently shut down plant is also located on the site of an earthquake.
From Reuters:
At its Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant, 230km northwest of Tokyo, three remain offline after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the area in July 2007 and small fires followed. Four others are under maintenance.
Though Japan could restart some of its 54 nuclear plants in the future, public support for atomic power remains understandably low. Despite this, Cameco, a major global producer of uranium, is still confident that Japan will bring a portion of its plants back online.
The executive director of Greenpeace Japan described the country’s current virtually nuclear-free condition as having virtually no impact on daily life, despite the fact that before the tsunami Japan used to get around one third of its electricity from nuclear power.
Japan has also increased its fossil fuel imports since the Fukushima disaster.
Read more on BBC News.
Tags: earthquake, Fukushima, japan, nuclear power, reactor, tsunami
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[...] the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster, Japan has – hopefully temporarily –increased its fossil fuel imports. Yet even before Fukushima, the country’s ghg emissions were on the rise, despite Kyoto [...]
[...] One year after Fukushima, Japan nearly nuke free (greenfudge.org) [...]
ohhhhh that’s sad, the fact that they are now using fossil fuel is really sad, of course we understand that life should go on after the tragedies on the nuclear plants but I just hope that Japanese will do its best and innovate amid all these crises going on