Nuclear meltdown

17 September 2012 By Edward Hadas, Christopher Swann

If Tokyo follows up on its pledge to phase out its reactors, the costs will not be limited to higher electric bills. The replacement fossil fuels are far more dangerous. In demanding perfect safety from nuclear energy – but not from coal – Japan is going with an alarming trend.

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Japan’s government said on Sept. 14 that it intends to stop using nuclear power by the 2030s, marking a major shift from policy goals set before last year’s Fukushima disaster that sought to increase the share of atomic energy to more than half of electricity supply. “This is a strategy to create a new future”, a policy statement said, after key ministers finalised the decision on Friday. “It is not pie in the sky. It is a practical strategy.”
Japan joins Germany and Switzerland in turning away from nuclear power after last year’s earthquake unleashed a tsunami that swamped the Fukushima Daiichi plant, causing the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986. Japan was the third-biggest user of atomic energy before the disaster.
All but two of Japan’s 50 nuclear reactors are idled for safety checks and the government plans to allow restarts of units taken off line after the disaster if they are deemed safe by a new atomic regulator.
By applying a strict 40-year limit on the lifetime of reactors, most will be shut down by the 2030s.

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