Japan backs nuclear time since fukushima11/16/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() Siemens, the country’s largest manufacturer, has complained the transition will cost $2 trillion and RWE and E.ON, the two largest energy companies, are laying off 14,000 workers because of slumping profits. At one point it had to ask Austria to fire up an old oil-burning plant. This winter the output of Germany’s 2.5 GW of solar collectors has been operating at less than 5 percent cent capacity and the country has survived only by importing nuclear electricity from France and the Czech Republic. ![]() The results so far have been unpromising. Now Germany has embarked on an ambitious, government-subsidized effort to switch to renewable energy. In the year previous, she had revived Germany’s program by renegotiating a 2000 agreement to phase out all reactors by 2020. Premier Angela Merkel, herself a physicist, was stricken with remorse during the Fukushima accident and vowed to close all of Germany’s reactors in the next decade. Westinghouse, Hitachi, and Mitsubishi are all world-leading manufacturers. Government officials have indicated, however, that Japanese industries will continue to sell their excellent nuclear products abroad. It is unlikely that Japan will be building any more reactors in the near future. Strong anti-nuclear movements have become politically powerful and several leading newspapers are keeping up a constant drumbeat of alarm. People in various parts of the world live with background 1,000 times as high, but extremely strict standards prevent Fukushima evacuees from returning to their homes. Radiation levels in the region are now about twice normal background. Of the 31,000 people who have been evacuated, many have suffered from depression and a few have committed suicide. So far there have been no deaths or illnesses from radiation, although two older workers did die of heat stroke during the accident. The resulting shortage of electricity has hurt manufacturing and led to the nation’s first trade deficit in 31 years. All but one of Tokyo Electric Power’s reactors are now shut down and half are unlikely to reopen. But it may be a long time before it embraces nuclear again. Japan got 33 percent of its electric power from nuclear and was one of the most advanced countries in developing the technology. The epicenter of the accident still remains fairly traumatized. ![]()
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