A draft decision from the Nuclear Regulatory Authority that units 1 and 2 of the Sendai nuclear power plant meet Japan’s new safety standards is a big step forward for the country as it moves towards restarting its fleet of 48 nuclear reactors, according to a statement from trade organisation the World Nuclear Association.
The country has had to wait a long time for the first approval to come. Japanese reactors have mostly been standing idle since operators took them offline following the Fukushima disaster of March 2011, to allow for a major overhaul of the country’s regulatory system. The extra expenditure on fossil fuel imports to cover this has amounted to ¥3 – 4 trillion per year ($30 – 40 billion) according to government estimates. The announcement, on 16 July, is evidence that the new regulatory structure is in fact working, and that a greater level of safety has been introduced. WNA hopes that similar decisions will soon be arrived at for all of Japan’s reactors.
Restarting Japan’s fleet of nuclear reactors is characterised by the WNA as ‘perhaps the single most important step that can be taken at this time to help keep the world within 2°C of warming.’ This is because in financial year 2010 Japan’s nuclear reactors produced 271 TWh of electricity, an amount almost exactly equal to that produced by all of the EU’s wind and solar sources in 2012 (273.4 TWh). But the reactor shutdown has resulted in additional emissions of over 100 million tonnes of CO2 per year.
