© Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters
Pylons stand in front of the cooling towers of the Grafenrheinfeld nuclear power station in northern Bavaria
Nuclear energy in Japan may be making a significant comeback, it is just not going to be able to meet the government's lofty production goals for 2030, according to a recent
Reuters report. The Japanese government had set a target
for nuclear to make up at least a 20 percent share of Japan's total electricity production over the next decade. The goal is part of a wide scale effort to push nuclear forward after
the industry was all but obliterated in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
On March 11, 2011 the largest earthquake ever recorded in Japan (9.0-9.1 Mw) caused a devastating tsunami to crash into the Japanese coastline, causing no fewer than three meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant, in addition to hydrogen-air explosions, the release of radioactive material, and a lasting, distrust of the safety of nuclear energy throughout Japan and
across the globe.
At the time of the disaster,
Japan depended on 54 functioning nuclear reactors for a huge portion of its power. Immediately after, the number of functioning nuclear plants dropped to zero, and in the intervening years only 8 began producing again, all of which had to secure new operating permits. Fearing the end of the Japanese nuclear sector entirely, thanks to the well-founded public fear and unceasing oceans of bad press,
Japan even went so far as to turn to coal in their desperation to make up for the energy production loss.
Comment: Was this another one of Trump's tactics to get Macron and Europe back in line? Right after the spat, it's all being called a misunderstanding: