As we wrote last Friday, Japan has moved to scale back the expansion of nuclear power and will focus on growing the renewables sector.
That’s made even more understandable by the news yesterday that it appears there may have been a partial meltdown of the fuel rods in the Number 1 reactor at Fukushima.
The news came in an announcement from Tepco that technicians had been repairing gauges and had discovered that the water level inside the Number 1 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was very low, despite 150 tonnes a day being poured into the reactor.
Tepco said it feared water had been leaking from a crack in the reactor into the bottom of the containment vessel and that a large part of the fuel may have been fully exposed and possibly melted.
Late last night Tepco said that it now appeared most of the fuel rods may have melted and fallen to the bottom of the containment vessel.
That makes the situation far worse than previously thought and the question is now if the fuel had melted, what has happened to the residue?
The news underlines the move earlier in the week to confirm the move away from new nuclear power plants in coming years in Japan.
The news means that an important source of additional demand for uranium suppliers in countries like Australia has gone.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan confirmed the shift in Tokyo earlier this week when Chubu Electric Power Company agreed to his request that operations be suspended at the Hamaoka nuclear plant in central Japan.
That’s because it is sited directly over an earthquake fault with an 87% chance of being the source of a quake in the next 30 years.
Chubu has to devise plans to make the plant more earthquake and tsunami proof. The plant, which is on the coast, lacks a sea wall. Fukushima had a sea wall to protect it from tsunami, but it was too low and was swamped by the massive waves on March 11.
Chubu Electric Power started closing the plant’s remaining three reactors from yesterday.
Work started on a sixth reactor unit in December 2008. On January 30, 2009 two other reactors were permanently shut down.
The closure means that this ageing power complex now joins the Fukushima Daiichi plant of Tokyo Electric that was damaged in the March 11 quake and tsunami which caused the world’s most serious nuclear incident since Chernobyl 25 years ago.
The earthquake and tsunami on March 11 has led to the suspension of operations at 14 reactors, including those at Fukushima Daiichi. 19 other reactors are currently offline and are either undergoing regular inspections or will be inspected soon by regulators.
More will be closed so that by the northern summer some 75% of the 54 reactors could be shut, leaving a big hole in the country’s energy supplies at a time when they are already strained.
The request to Chubu Electric was seen in Japan as a way for Mr Kan and his government to make the point about the changes to the country’s Strategic Energy Plan.
Mr Kan said on Tuesday that Japan’s energy policy has relied on nuclear power and fossil fuels, but that he would shift focus to natural energy, such as solar and wind power and biomass fuels.
Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors currently provide 30% of its electricity and the new strategic plan called for the construction of at least 14 new reactors over the next 20 years.
But now that is an unacceptable target and the government will also end attempts to export Japanese nuclear plants and technologies to other countries in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
Mr Kan said Japan would retain the use of fossil fuel (LNG and coal mainly) and ruled out abandoning nuclear power absolutely.
On Wednesday, Fukushima’s owner, Tepco said it would accept the conditions for government support for a massive compensation payout for those deprived of their homes and businesses by the crisis.
US bank, JPMorgan this week estimated that Tepco could face 2 trillion yen (or $25 billion) in compensation payments, while the Asahi newspaper in Tokyo said this week the sum could be double that at 4 trillion yen.
Tepco has already raised 2 trillion yen from its banks to provide carry on finance for its business, to buy gas, oil and coal to replace the lost power capacity at Fukushima and to pay for the lengthy decommissioning of the plan.
The company has accepted there should be no upper limit on damages that could reach 10 trillion yen, according to some reports.
That’s a huge $125 billion, or around 40% of the current cost of the damage to Japan from the quake and tsunami (excluding Fukushima).
That means the total cost could end up well over $400 billion.
