Japan exorcises Fukushima's ghosts to embrace nuke power

Experts lament the country's continued presence of fossil fuels in targeted 2040 energy mix

- Walter Sim

TOKYO - Japan is decidedly embracing nuclear energy again, 13 years after it was jolted out of what it has come to refer to as the "nuclear safety" myth by the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown, which ranks among the world's worst nuclear disasters.

A draft of its seventh Strategic Energy Plan - issued on Dec 17 and likely to be approved wholesale by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's Cabinet - scraps language from past policy documents that reflected a resolve to "minimise reliance" on atomic energy.

Rather, it urges that more nuclear plants, which were shuttered for safety checks, be restarted and, for the first time since 2011, the construction of entirely new reactors, bringing Japan on board the global nuclear power renaissance.

The blueprint, which is reviewed and updated every three to four years, comes as the world's fourth-largest economy has been spooked by energy security fears, with global conflicts disrupting fossil fuel imports.

The document cites the benefits of nuclear power, says it is stable, cheap, non-polluting and, unlike renewable energy such as wind and solar, can be generated independent of weather conditions.

For a country of 124 million people, Japan's energy self-sufficiency rate in 2023 stood at a meagre 15.2 per cent. At the same time, its digitalisation push, with energy-gouging data centres and semiconductor foundries, heaps more demand on the power grid.

All this is not to mention how Japan had sweltered through its hottest year in 2024, including its hottest-ever autumn, with the mercury rising a national average of 1.97 deg C higher than usual. This delayed not just autumn foliage, but also the appearance of Mount Fuji's famous snowcap.