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It has been 10 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake. The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant caused a major change in Japan’s nuclear power policy.
In the last 10 years the cause of the nuclear accident has been investigated. However, it is still unknown why Unit 2’s containment vessel was not decisively destroyed.
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Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (Photo: Yoshio Tsunoda / Afro)
Traditional nuclear power plants remain politically difficult to restart
Named Fukushima 50, he stayed at the site knowing the risk of radioactive contamination and worked on it, and at the operator’s discretion, the emergency core cooling system called RCIC was activated to keep the reactor cool and on top of the containment vessel. . Human efforts such as the fact that a breach was created and unplanned radioactive material leaked, and that the inability to inject water at the crucial moment may have suppressed the reaction between water and metal and suppressed fusion. Things that can only be said to be fortunate may be the result of an overlap.
Anyway, as a result, the worst-case evacuation scenario for residents within a radius of 250 km from the nuclear power plant, that is, the destruction of eastern Japan, was avoided. For this reason, conventional nuclear power plants remain politically difficult to restart.
On the other hand, the world energy situation has changed in the last 10 years. Four years ago, when the Trump administration of the United States announced that it would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the decarbonization movement appeared to have stopped, but the Biden administration returned to the Paris Agreement.
In anticipation of the birth of the Biden administration, the Suga administration launched “carbon neutral 2050” late on October 26 of last year, just before the US presidential election. If the time was changed, he would be a laughing stock in the world, so it was safe to sneak in.
Only 50-60% can depend on renewable energy anywhere in Japan, the United States and Europe.
The Biden administration has invested 2 trillion dollars (206 trillion yen) to include the use of nuclear power plants, especially the development of small nuclear reactors, in countermeasures against climate change. Bill Gates also actively supports and finances small reactors.
This small reactor is considerably safer than the traditional one. Until now, nuclear power plants were huge facilities and systems that could not be managed in an emergency. In the Fukushima nuclear accident, all power was lost, the reactor could not be cooled, and a meltdown occurred. However, a small nuclear reactor has the advantage that it can be cooled by natural cooling even if the cooling function is lost.
Also in Japan, in response to Prime Minister Suga’s statements, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on December 25 that it would promote the development of a new nuclear reactor in parallel with the restart of existing nuclear power plants to realize neutrality of carbon.
In all parts of Japan, the United States and Europe, we can only rely on 50-60% renewable energy. The remaining pillars are nuclear and thermal energy. For carbon neutrality, it is necessary to capture and store the CO2 generated by thermal energy, which inevitably generates high costs. When it comes down to it, we still need a nuclear power plant. However, it is politically difficult to restart conventional nuclear power plant on a large scale, and it is practically impossible to build a new one, so we have to scale it down eventually. In that case, the key will be the development of a safer and carbon-free small reactor.
A Japanese company, Hitachi, Ltd., is developing a small nuclear reactor with General Electric (GE) of the United States, but it has not yet been implemented in Japan. However, the industry has announced that Kansai Electric Power will consider small reactors.
