The Japanese parliament on Wednesday passed a law that extends the life of nuclear reactors in the Asian country to more than sixty years. In this way, Japan wants to secure electricity supplies and help achieve climate goals.
The measure makes it possible to exclude the periods in which the reactors are shut down from the total service period. All nuclear reactors were shut down for a long time to comply with nuclear safety regulations introduced after the Fukushima disaster of 2011. Most reactors have still not returned to service, according to The Japan Times, because successive governments did not want a quick restart by strong public opposition.
It is one of the measures announced by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last summer to relaunch nuclear power in Japan. That announcement came just months after the energy shock that followed the outbreak of war in Ukraine. The Japanese Nuclear Safety Authority NRA gave its approval in February.
Under the new legislation, reactors with more than 30 years of service must be inspected by the NRA every 10 years.
All Japanese nuclear power plants were shut down after the Fukushima disaster. A violent earthquake under the sea then caused a gigantic tsunami on the northeast coast of the island.
1970s and 1980s
Of the paper’s 33 operational reactors in the country, only ten have been restarted since the nuclear disaster. The power plants that are now operating had to meet higher safety standards. There are currently nine reactors operating in Japan, all located in the west or southwest of the island.
The first commercial Japanese nuclear reactor was operational in 1966, reports the Federation of Electric Power Companies in Japan (FEPC). Most of the plants currently running date from the 1970s and 1980s. Before the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan obtained 30 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, the FEPC said.
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