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IPFS News Link • Japan

Japan flips on nuclear -- it tried to go Green without it but now wants to reopen closed plants

• https://joannenova.com.au

It's the third largest economy in the world, and a large but quiet vacuum of global fossil fuels. Right now it's the second largest importer of gas in the world after China, and the third largest importer of coal (not that Extinction Rebellion seems to care).

Before the Fukushima disaster in 2011, nuclear power generation produced as much as 30% of Japan's energy mix, but that's now shrunk to just 6%. Japan has only six operating nuclear reactors left with a total capacity of six gigawatts, down from 54 before the Fukushima incident. Just a few days ago polls showed that that the fear and negativity of nuclear power in Japan has dramatically shifted in the last few months.  One little war can change everything. Russia has suddenly given everyone permission to get serious about nuclear power.

Now the Japanese government wants to grow back from 6% to 20% nuclear in just 8 years.

Japan Sees Nuclear Energy As A Vital Piece Of Its Net-Zero Plan

OilPrice.com

Prior to the Fukushima disaster, nuclear power generation accounted for almost 30% of Japan's energy mix.

Though some plants have resumed operation since then, nuclear energy currently accounts for only around 6.2% of Japan's energy mix. To make up for the nuclear shortfall, Japan stepped up imports of natural gas; liquified natural gas (LNG) imports jumped 12,621 thousand tonnes between 2010 and 2011.

PM Kishida's administration …aims to leverage Japan's nuclear infrastructure to help achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, hoping to have nuclear energy take up between 20-22% of the energy mix by 2030.

The Economist in 2020 lamented that the energy transition was not transitioning


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