Japan has lost a fifth of its nuclear power generating capacity,
forcing utilities to impose periodic blackouts and electricity rationing in
much of the country.
Nuclear plants provide 30 percent of Japan’s electricity,
according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. A significant portion of that
has not yet come back online after automatic scrams triggered by the quake. An
additional 4,696 megawatts are unavailable because of the ongoing crisis at the
six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi plant. A total of 11 nuclear plants in the
country are not operating.
Overall, The BBC quoted the Japanese trade minister as
saying the country faces a shortfall of 10,000 megawatts. The government was
trying to ration electricity among its manufacturers. The BBC reported Toshiba,
Sony and Nippon Paper had closed plants, with Toyota production lines shut down
until Thursday and Honda lines down until March 20.
Outages are expected to affect a swath of Japan from the
northeast coast to roughly 120 miles south of Tokyo for several weeks, although
power has remained on in central Tokyo.