A new report from Greenpeace calls for the complete closure of all Japanese nuclear power plants by 2012. The report was released at the same time as the new Prime Minister, Yoshihiko Noda, was making his first policy speech to parliament calling for the restart of all reactors that are currently offline due to routine safety checks and maintenance.
According to the Greenpeace report, the Advanced Energy Revolution — Sustainable Energy Outlook for Japan, as of August 2011 only 12 of Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors were actually operational. This led the report’s lead author Sven Teske to conclude that Japan seems to have been able to get by with only limited nuclear power use this summer and that with greater emphasis on energy savings and enhanced energy efficiencies, the country could close down all nuclear plants next year.
On Our World 2.0, we have looked at other scenarios for the phasing out of nuclear power in Japan, with one example being that developed by the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies (ISEP) (see related articles in the column to the right). These tend to suggest a gradual phasing out so that Japan is 100% renewable by 2050. The World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) Japan has developed an almost identical scenario.
Greenpeace, however, is suggesting something far more radical and Teske argues that the goal is to turn the “nuclear catastrophe into a renewable opportunity”. He makes it very clear that Greenpeace has always been anti-nuclear and sees no future in this source of energy.
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