Anxious Japan prepares for life without nuclear power

[jpak]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/03/japan-nuclear-power-closure?newsfeed=true

This weekend Japan will begin a bold experiment in energy use that no one had thought possible – until the Fukushima Daiichi power plant suffered a triple meltdown just over a year ago.

On Saturday, when the Hokkaido electric power company shuts down the No3 reactor at its Tomari plant for maintenance, the world's third-largest economy will be without a single working nuclear reactor for the first time for almost 50 years.

The closure of the last of Japan's 54 reactors marks a dramatic shift in energy policy, but while campaigners prepare to celebrate, the nationwide nuclear blackout comes with significant economic and environmental risks attached.

The crisis at Fukushima sparked by last year's deadly earthquake and tsunami forced Japan into a fundamental rethink of its relationship with nuclear power.

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[kristopher]

1. Japan's holidays are somewhat different than our holidays

And on May 5th, the day they shut down the last plant, they will be celebrating "Children's Day".


http://www.infomapjapan.com/japanese_holidays.phtml



It is too bad they will almost certainly be restarting most of them.

[immoderate]

2. This may compel the Japanese into moving the ball that we dropped.

A focused Japanese society may advance the cause of "conversion to renewables" which is the victim of political boondoggling in the US.

--imm

[Nihil]

3. They've done remarkably well on the conservation side.

Setting a standard to show how advanced technological nations *can* do it
if they really want to.

Mind you, they've certainly had encouragement in doing so:
> "I have to say we are facing the risk of a very severe electricity shortage,"
> the economy, trade and industry minister, Yukio Edano, said, adding that
> the extra cost of importing fuel for use in thermal power stations could be
> passed on to individual consumers though higher electricity bills.
> ...
> Over the past 14 months, dozens of nuclear reactors not directly affected
> by the tsunami have gone offline to undergo regular maintenance and
> safety checks, while utilities have turned to coal, oil and gas-fired power
> plants to keep industry and households supplied with electricity – imports
> that contribute to Japan's first trade deficit for more than 30 years last year.

Still, it shows that it *can* be done, given enough incentive (including public
encouragement to *REDUCE* their consumption rather than increase it in order
to be a "good citizen&quot .

[kristopher]

4. Well, it has happened; they've shut down their last reactor.

I guess I wasn't the only one that drew the connection to Children's Day.

Thousands march as Japan switches off last nuclear reactor
4:25 AM, May. 5, 2012



People gather at an anti-nuclear demonstration Saturday at a park in Tokyo. / By Kazuhiro Nogi, AFP/Getty Images


TOKYO (AP) — Thousands of Japanese marched to celebrate the last of this nation's 50 nuclear reactors switching off Saturday, shaking banners shaped as giant fish that have become a potent anti-nuclear symbol.

Japan will be without electricity from nuclear power for the first time in four decades when one of three reactors at Tomari nuclear plant in the northern island of Hokkaido goes offline for routine maintenance checks.

After last year's March 11 quake and tsunami set off meltdowns at Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, no reactor stopped for checkups has restarted amid growing public worries about the safety of nuclear technology.

"Today is a historical day," shouted Masashi Ishikawa to a crowd gathered at a Tokyo park, some holding traditional "Koinobori" carp-shaped banners for Children's Day that have grown into a symbol of the anti-nuclear movement.

"There are so many ...

http://www.lohud.com/usatoday/article/54764792?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CNews%7Cp