Nuclear-free Japan braces for power shortages
Japan's $5 trillion economy has relied heavily on nuclear power for decades, with its reactors providing almost 30 percent of electricity needs, but last year's massive earthquake and subsequent nuclear crisis spurred a public backlash against atomic energy. Cabinet ministers have largely failed to win over the public to allow the restart of the country's plants - shut one by one for scheduled maintenance and unable to resume operations because of concerns about safety.
Japan's Asahi newspaper said public sentiment was "wavering between two sources of anxiety" - fear over the safety of nuclear power and doubts on whether Japan can live without it. "The public shouldn't just criticise (the government) but make its own decision on energy policy that involves burden and responsibility, such as through cooperating in power saving," the paper said in an editorial on Sunday. The government hopes to come up with an estimate by mid-May of expected shortages this summer, and will then produce a plan to conserve energy that could include compulsory curbs on use of power, Japanese media say. But setting a long-term energy policy or a clear timeframe for restarting the plants will take time given strong public opposition and a divided parliament that has paralysed policy-making, analysts say...
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/05/06/nuclear-japan-idINDEE84503H20120506
See also: Table showing status of 50 reactors with capacity of 46,148 megawatts:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-07/japan-nuclear-power-free-after-shutdown-of-last-reactor-table-.html
Japan's Asahi newspaper said public sentiment was "wavering between two sources of anxiety" - fear over the safety of nuclear power and doubts on whether Japan can live without it. "The public shouldn't just criticise (the government) but make its own decision on energy policy that involves burden and responsibility, such as through cooperating in power saving," the paper said in an editorial on Sunday. The government hopes to come up with an estimate by mid-May of expected shortages this summer, and will then produce a plan to conserve energy that could include compulsory curbs on use of power, Japanese media say. But setting a long-term energy policy or a clear timeframe for restarting the plants will take time given strong public opposition and a divided parliament that has paralysed policy-making, analysts say...
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/05/06/nuclear-japan-idINDEE84503H20120506
See also: Table showing status of 50 reactors with capacity of 46,148 megawatts:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-07/japan-nuclear-power-free-after-shutdown-of-last-reactor-table-.html
