March 8, 2012
One Year After Fukushima, Japan Faces Shortages of Energy, Trust
By Maianne Lavelle
The tsunami that knocked out critical back-up cooling power at the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant on March 11, 2011, is still, in a sense, rolling over
Japan’s energy system.
Only two of the nation’s 54 nuclear power plants are still in operation and by the
end of next month, those will be shut down, too, extinguishing the source that
provided one-third of the electricity for the world’s third-largest national economy
before the Tohoku earthquake. One by one, local government officials have used the
power they have under Japanese law to halt nuclear generation, by refusing to sign
off on restart of any reactor after its routine maintenance shutdown. Until and
unless the national government can convince prefecture officials of the safety of
atomic energy in the earthquake- and tsunami-prone country, Japan faces a severe
electricity shortfall that will manifest itself when hot, humid summer weather
ratchets up demand for power.
With no domestic fossil fuel sources to take the place of nuclear, Japan is relying
ever more heavily on expensive imports of oil and liquefied natural gas. But that has
left the island nation vulnerable to still another energy risk: Nearly 70% of Japan’s
oil imports last year traveled by tanker through the Strait of Hormuz. If Iran’s
conflict with the West over its nuclear program escalates to disrupt Middle East
shipments, it would be yet another blow to the struggling Japanese economy.
For now the hope is that extensive energy conservation measures, which allowed
Japan to ride out a significant energy shortfall last summer, will see it through the
more severe scarcity ahead. But the bigger question is how the nation, in addition to
tackling the decades-long radiation clean-up effort ahead at Fukushima Diiachi, will
rebuild the needed trust in private and public institutions as it charts a new course
to fueling its future.
“The big picture is the shattering of public confidence, not just in the nuclear
program, but also in the government itself,” say Sheila Smith, senior fellow for Japan
studies at the Council in Foreign Relations in Washington D.C. “ The Japanese public
is deeply shattered by both the magnitude of the disaster and by past and present
government’s management of these power plants and larger questions about public
safety. There’s a lot of ‘mea culpa… a sense that ‘We ought to have asked more
questions and pushed harder for more openness and accountability.”
After the Deluge
Before the earthquake, the size of Japan’s nuclear power fleet rivaled only those of
the United States and France. It was home to the largest atomic plant in the world,
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa in Niigata Prefecture on the west coast and through that plant
had been severely damaged and partially idled by a 6.8 magnitude earthquake in
2007, the nation’s significant seismic risks had not dimmed its ambition for nuclear
power expansion. To fuel its future growth with fewer greenhouse gas emissions,
Japan had committed to ratcheting up the share of nuclear power in its electricity
supply, from 30%- 40% by 2017 and to 50% by 2030. (In contrast, nuclear power
provided just 20% of electricity in the USA.)
Those plans began to unravel at 2:46 p.m. Japan standard time last March 11, with a
9.0 magnitude earthquake 81 miles east of Sendai in the Pacific Ocean. The massive
tremor, the most powerful ever to have been recorded in Japan, triggered the
automatic shutdown of 11 nuclear power plants at four sites along the northeast
coast. That protective measure proceeded as planned, but nuclear plants need a
small amount of constant power even after fission has stopped. Diesel generators
switched onto run the cooling systems that control the decay heat of the plants’
nuclear fuel.
About 40 minutes after the quake, the tsunami hit, inundating Fukushima Daiichi
and crippling its crucial diesel back-up power system. The water’s height was
estimated at more than 45 feet, breaching the site’s flood protections by some 27
feet. Amid already widespread destruction and the loss of tens of thousands of lives,
Fukushima Daiichi became a second disaster epicenter. Plant workers labored in
near- total darkness to prevent a meltdown, with limited instrument readings and
controls. Their efforts could not prevent the fuel damage, buildup of hydrogen gas,
or explosions that blasted holes in the thick concrete walls in the first days of the
crisis.
It took weeks to stabilize the plant, but years of decontamination effort lie ahead.
More than 70,000 people who lived within a 12.4 mile radius remain evacuated, as
Japan cleans up the radioactive fallout from a nuclear accident second only to the
1986 Chernobyl explosion in Ukraine.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has said the government will spend at least $13
billion on the decontamination effort around the permanently shattered plant. But
the crisis of confidence in nuclear energy has spread far beyond Fukushima. Noda’s
predecessor, Naoto Kan, said that Japan should pursue a nuclear-free future before
he resigned last August due to an abrupt fall in popularity for his government. Noda,
in contrast, has pledged to boost the safety of the nation’s nuclear plants, while
pursuing alternative energy.
But only 19 nuclear power plants were still in operation when Noda took office in
September and 17 have closed since then. Only one unit of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa and
another reactor north on the Sea of Japan, remain in service. After they are shut
down for scheduled safety checks this spring, Japanese officials expect that they will
be kept out of service too.
Without any nuclear plants online, Japan faces a summer when peak electricity
demand likely will exceed supply by 15%, observers say. Last summer, Japan
weathered a shortfall of electricity with a concerted national effort to curb demand.
It ramped up a campaign it has been promoting since 2005 to cut air-conditioning in
offices, calling for temperatures to be set at 85° C, when summer high temperatures
in Tokyo can surpass 86° C with high humidity. Companies also shifted work to
early hours or weekends and took other steps such as deactivating elevators and
reducing use of printers and copiers.
So Japan’s national government and private electric power companies are working
to boost protections at nuclear power plants in a bid to win back public confidence,
to pave the way for reopening of the facilities. In many ways the steps being taken
in Japan are similar to those under way at other nuclear power plants around the
world, with a strengthened focus on robust and multiple systems to withstand an
extended outage of power from all units at a site.
Vocabulary to help guide your reading
Domestic - existing or occurring inside a particular country; not foreign or international.
Fossil Fuel - a natural fuel such as coal or gas, formed in the geological past from the
remains of living organisms.
Institution - a society or organization founded for a religious, educational, social, or similar
purpose.
Magnitude – the great size or extent of something.
‘mea culpa - an acknowledgment of one's fault or error.
Ratcheting – cause something to rise (or fall) as a step in what is perceived as a steady and
irreversible process.
Breaching – make a gap in and break through (a wall, barrier, or defense).
Decontamination – the process of cleansing an object or substance to remove contaminants
such as micro-organisms or hazardous materials, including chemicals, radioactive
substances, and infectious diseases.
Robust – (of a process, system, organization, etc.) able to withstand or overcome adverse
conditions.