HISTORY OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS IN JAPAN
- BEFORE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS: After the World War II the industrial growth in Japan doubled every 5 years until the 1990's, increasing the energy consumption of the nation. Until 1950 half of the energy was supplied by coal, one third by hydroelectricity and the rest by oil. The nation's GPS and energy consumption increases were hand in hand, but after the 1980's other sectors such as commerce and transportation started to take a big role in the increase of energy consumption showing a big change in people's lifestyle and comfort.
- HOW IT STARTED: Due to the increasing demand of energy and two main oil crisis, other energy sources had to be incorporated. Japan's energy supplies are mainly imported and to aim for better energy security, diversification was necessary. Natural gas, Nuclear power and other renewable sources such as solar and wind power started to be considered. Japan has a very delicate history with nuclear technology due to the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the WWII there for it was of great importance to make a clear distinction between the physics of Nuclear power and Nuclear weapons not only in Japan but in the world.
- ANTI NUCLEAR POWER PLANT ACTIONS: Survivors of the atomic bomb called "Hibakusha" and citizens who had suffered from the war were against nuclear energy being introduced to Japan. Anti nuclear organizations are still to this time working on eliminating nuclear power plants in Japan specially considering that after the WWII Japan's primer minister Mr. Sato at that time had stated that Japan shall neither possess nor manufacture nuclear weapons, nor shall it permit their introduction into Japanese territory.
- ATOMIC ENERGY BASIC LAW: 1955
Article 1 (the objective)The objective of this Law should be to secure energy resources in the future, to achieve the progress of science and technology and the promotion of industries by fostering the research, development and utilization of atomic energy and thereby to contribute to the welfare of mankind and to the elevation of the national living standard.
Article 2 (Basic policy)
The research, development and utilization of atomic energy shall be limited to peaceful purposes, aimed at ensuring safety and performed independently under democratic management, the results therefrom shall be made public to contribute to international cooperation.
- GOVERNMENT INCENTIVE MONEY TO OPEN POWER PLANTS: Having not found information about this, citizens living in this area have commented about the incentive money that the governments to the local municipalities if they allow the opening of power plants in their departments.
- NUMBER OF POWER PLANTS IN JAPAN: There are 55 operating Nuclear power reactors all over Japan.
I was gardening up on the mountains of a pacific island located 1000km South of Tokyo called Chichijima. Suddenly I hear the emergency siren on the background although the echo coming from the mountains and my naivety on the situation made me think it was a standard evacuation practice that Japan does every so often. After several sirens I decide to check if there is something wrong going on (around 4pm). With no TV at home I check the news on my computer and there it is, one of the biggest earthquakes scaled magnitude 9.0 on Japan's history hits the Northeastern part of Japan at 2:46PM (epicenter time) and consecutively Tsunami waves that reached up to 37.9m washed away kilometers of inhabited houses, in some cases up to 10km inland. With only 10 minutes of anticipated Tsunami warning to evacuate, not many people get the chance to save their lives. The news are everywhere, images are shown as the number of missing people increase. It seems to be son unreal, so far away but as I come back to reality I realize that the sirens are for Tsunami warnings for us.
With a population of around 2000 people, the main town is located in Futami bay at sea level. Our home is located up in the mountains away from town, so we were safe and decided to go to a high peek and check the ocean. People had to evacuate to higher ground and those owning boats such as fisherman and ocean tour guides take a big risk by moving their boats to the center of the bay to protect them from bashing into the port walls in case of a tsunami. A very dangerous act, but their work depends on those boats and risks have to be made. As I stand up in the mountain the colors of the ocean and the sun shining between the clouds make the whole disaster unreal, I am tremendously grateful to life for being there. Suddenly as we look the town beach, it seems that the ocean line has lowered and the beach has widened. A friend who saw this from closer said "It happened really quickly and we could see the corals of the bottom of the ocean". Fortunately the water came in slowly, but the water reached ground level. The town river flooded and cars that were parked in the port were damaged but houses were not affected and there were no people injured.
Went back home after talking to friends and making sure their family members were fine. As I turn the news back on I see another disaster, Nuclear Meltdown! The Fukushima power plant is on fire, the water cooling system is not working and the different reactors are out of control. The news keep showing every update moving from earthquake effects to tsunami and to the meltdown news.
In my head I start to wonder about our situation, the reality in this Island. Even though we are so far away from Tokyo and would probably not be affected unless the nuclear power exploded we are "safe". The biggest concern is that this island depends on food and economy from Tokyo and mainland Japan. If things did get bad, our only boat that carries our food once a week would not come and without much agriculture going on we would starve. The other question is if the food that we are getting is going to be contaminated or not? But the biggest question is SHOULD I LEAVE? Friends in Tokyo and Shonan start to evacuate to a safer zone or decide to return to their homeland. We have to make a decision soon since the boat is coming in a couple of days, our only exit but that could be risky. What if things get bad once we get there? or what if we decide to stay but it is too late to go back? Every day, uncertainty, a whole week passes by and the question is still the first thing we think in the morning. The boat left? There is another one coming next week but is things seem to be under control and we commit to stay in this Island and survive. People start buying the food from the supermarkets and people who don't have the time to shop are left with very little. Town hall meetings are made to listen to people's thoughts and to keep them informed of the real situation of the Island. Food is going to be coming as expected but a little less than usual, there is gas in the storage, the gasoline will be sold in few amounts, water cleaning drugs are still available and electricity can be produced but in less amount. It is asked for the people to cut down on electricity and save gas.
As for what is going on the Northeastern part of Japan is a complete different story. They have lost their homes, their family members, their jobs, their towns, everything. The remaining people are in refugee camps trying to be warm from the cold northern winds. People are being evacuated from a 20km radius of the Fukushima Nuclear power plant.
To be continued...
Links:
Map of Japan's power business development
http://www.jpower.co.jp/english/ir/pdf/2010-05.pdf
Anual report 2010 of Japan's energy development
http://www.jpower.co.jp/english/ir/pdf/2010.pdf
More Information:
http://www.enecho.meti.go.jp/english/report/outline.pdf
http://www.jpower.co.jp/english/ir/pdf/fact09e.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Japan#Carbon_emissions
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/16/opinion/1
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/mar/14/nuclear-power-plant-accidents-list-rank
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0001xgp.php
