Japan currently has 54 nuclear power plants nationwide. The ministry also proposed that the country raise the operating rate of the facilities to the world’s top level of some 90% in 20 years’ time
– By Stephen Heiser
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has announced that Japan should build more than 14 new atomic power plants by 2030 as part of its effort to fight global warming.
Japan currently has 54 nuclear power plants nationwide. The ministry also proposed that the country raise the operating rate of the facilities to the world’s top level of some 90% in 20 years’ time, while the rate has been declining to around 60 percent in recent years due partly to safety checks at some plants.
Japan's reactor fleet has a total generating capacity of forty-nine gigawatts, accounting for about a quarter of its electricity supplies. Following a series of accidents between 1997 and 2007, however, growing public resistance meant that only five reactors were built in the past decade. The new plan proposes building eight reactors by 2020 to supply an additional 11.4 gigawatts of electricity. From there Japan would grow to 14 new atomic power plants by 2030.
To ensure that those reactors have fuel, Japan forged a nuclear-energy deal in March with Kazakhstan, which holds the world’s second-largest uranium reserves and mines about 20 percent of the world’s uranium ore, making it the world’s biggest producer. Japan has promised to supply nuclear-energy technology to Kazakhstan in return for a stable supply of uranium.
Earlier this month the Japanese released a white paper on nuclear safety and called for Japan to further promote nuclear power generation as a way of curbing global warming. If the rate of utilizing nuclear power facilities improves by 1 percent in Japan, carbon dioxide emissions will drop by about 3 million tons in the country, the 2009 white paper, compiled by the Nuclear Safety Commission and approved by the Cabinet, said.
The white paper called on the Nuclear Safety Commissions to address in the next 10 years various challenges associated with the government's policy of promoting nuclear power generation.
But there is room for further efforts to raise facility utilization rates in Japan, the white paper said, noting that rates in the country are lower than those in other advanced countries like the United States.