Alongside plans to establish a strong renewable energy sector, Japan aims to redevelop its nuclear energy capacity to boost its power and support its climate goals. However, with memories of the Fukushima nuclear disaster still fresh, many in Japan are worried about the risks involved with developing the country’s nuclear capacity. Nevertheless, the government has big plans for a new nuclear era, commencing with the restarting of the world’s biggest nuclear facility.
The 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident is viewed as the second-worst nuclear disaster after the Chornobyl disaster of 1986. On 11th March 2011, a magnitude-9.0 earthquake hit the north of Japan, with the shock from the quake provoking a tsunami, the waves of which damaged the backup generators at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Although all three of the operating reactors were successfully shut down, the loss of power caused cooling systems to fail in each of them.
Rising residual heat within each reactor’s core caused the fuel rods in reactors 1, 2, and 3 to overheat and partially melt down, leading to the release of radiation. Three explosions resulted from the buildup of pressurised hydrogen gas in the following days, leading to fears of leaked radiation and the evacuation of tens of thousands of people within a 30 km radius of the plant.
The accident prompted a widespread distrust of nuclear power in Japan for more than a decade. However, in February 2025, Japan’s Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry published a draft revision of the national basic energy plan, in which the statement on moving away from nuclear power has been removed. Later that month, the Cabinet approved the revised Seventh Strategic Energy Plan, which stated the aim of producing 20 percent of power from nuclear energy by 2040. This marked a significant shift in Japan’s approach to nuclear power.
Before 2011, Japan had 54 reactors that provided around 30 percent of the country’s electricity. At present, just 14 of 33 operable reactors are producing power, while efforts to restart others have been thwarted due to public opposition.
Japan is home to the world’s largest nuclear facility, the 8.2 GW Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, which covers 4.2 km2 of land in Niigata prefecture, 220km north-west of Tokyo. The facility was developed in 2012, but it has yet to come online, as, following the Fukushima disaster, the poor public perception of safety in the nuclear sector led the government to shut down several nuclear reactors.
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is operated by Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), the same utility that managed Fukushima. Tepco aimed to restart one of the seven reactors at Kashiwazaki on 19th January, but was forced to delay the restart as an alarm malfunctioned during a test of equipment, although the company expects to bring it online within the next few days. The restarting of reactor No. 6 will increase Tokyo’s electricity supply by around 2 percent, as well as mark a major step forward in the government’s plans to deploy more nuclear power in the coming years.
However, many in Japan are still wary about the risks involved with nuclear power projects. Many of those living with proximity to Kashiwazaki-Kariwa are worried about the potential for another Fukushima-scale event, which could lead up to 420,000 residents to be evacuated from across a 30 km radius.
However, Tepco says it has learnt from the mistakes of the Fukushima incident. Since its development, 6,000 workers have continued working at Kashiwazaki. Seawalls and watertight doors have been installed at the facility to ensure greater protection against a potential tsunami. The plant is also fitted with mobile diesel-powered generators and a large fleet of fire engines capable of providing water to cool reactors in the case of an emergency. In addition, upgraded filtering systems have been fitted to control the spread of radioactive materials.
However, public confidence in nuclear power companies has been further harmed due to recent news of a firm fabricating data. It was found that Chubu Electric Power, a utility in central Japan, fabricated seismic risk data during a regulatory review, ahead of a possible restart of two reactors at its idle Hamaoka plant. In response, Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) scrapped the safety screening at the plant, which is located on the coast, around 200 km west of Tokyo, in an area prone to Nankai Trough megaquakes. The NRA is now considering inspecting Chubu’s headquarters.
Nuclear power is now widely viewed as one of the safest forms of energy production, on a global scale, which has led several countries to invest in a new era of nuclear power. Despite overwhelming public opposition to the development of Japan’s nuclear power sector, the government plans to gradually restart several reactors and expand nuclear capacity in the coming decades to support decarbonisation aims.
By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com
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