17 Aug (NucNet): The chairmen of three industrial groups in Japan have welcomed the restart of the Sendai-1 nuclear reactor unit, saying it will help the country’s economy, the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (Jaif) said.
Chairman Sadayuki Sakakibara of the Japan Business Federation Keidanren (JBF), Chairman Akio Mimura of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) and Chairman Yoshimitsu Kobayashi of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (JACE) issued statements after the Sendai-1 nuclear unit restarted on 10 August 2015.
Mr Sakakibara said nuclear power is an important energy source for Japan, “not only from the viewpoints of energy security and economy, but also as a measure to combat global warming”.
Mr Mimura said the restart of the reactor will be very helpful to Japan’s economy as a whole because rising power costs have become a burden to small- and medium-sized enterprises, as well as to the recovery of local economies. Mr Mimura emphasized that a stable supply of energy at a reasonable price must be realised throughout Japan by all means.
The expertise accumulated during the examination procedures at Sendai-1 should be shared among Japan’s power companies and nuclear power station operators in order to speed up the process for restarting other nuclear units, Mr Mimura also said.
Mr Kobayashi said constant efforts have to be made to improve safety at all nuclear power stations, including such systematic aspects as the issuance of highly practical evacuation plans, and the disclosure of accurate information to the public nationwide.
The government should also formulate realistic measures concerning high-level radioactive waste treatment and disposal, as well as the nuclear fuel cycle, so that the country’s nuclear power business can be sustainable, Mr Kobayashi also said.
In May 2015, Japan’s government said it will “take the initiative” in identifying scientifically suitable or promising candidate sites for a high-level radioactive waste (HLW) repository, moving away from its previous approach of relying on applications from municipalities.
The Japan Times said around 17,000 tonnes of spent fuel from nuclear plants across the country are stored in pools at the plants themselves and in a storage facility at the reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori prefecture.
In April 2014, Jaif president Takuya Hattori said fossil fuel plants have had to fill the gap left by nuclear energy when the country’s nuclear units were shut down after the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and the Fukushima Daiichi accident. For utilities, this meant having to buy more oil, coal and natural gas adding a cost of about ¥3.7 trillion (about €28.5 billion) for 2014.
Since the shutdown of nuclear reactors in Japan, utilities have increased rates by about 20 percent for household consumers and about 30 percent for industrial consumers, according to Jaif. This has resulted in energy-intensive industries wanting to move out of Japan to countries like South Korea.
On 10 August 2015, Sendai-1 became the first nuclear unit to restart in Japan after all units had been shut down for safety checks and upgrades following the Fukushima-Daiichi accident. The Sendai-1 unit received approval to restart in May 2015, completing the NRA’s three-part screening process and new safety requirements introduced for all nuclear plants in June 2013.
Earlier this year Japan’s Institute of Energy Economics said 11 nuclear units could be back online by the end of March 2016.
