Japan ahead in N-energy race

Japan has decided to enhance its nuclear energy programme by over 10 per cent in the next 23 years, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Dec 18, 2007, 02:41:09 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, Tokyo

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Japan has decided to enhance its nuclear energy programme by over 10 per cent in the next 23 years to meet its commitment under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change mitigation whereas India is still looking for this option because of lack of political consensus on the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Issei Takaki, the manager at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northern Japan, said the plan is to increase the share of nuclear power to about 40 per cent from the present 30 per cent by 2030. Two more reactors would be set up near the Daiichi plant to enhance its overall capacity.

Even if the nuclear deal comes through, India’s nuclear power capability will rise to only 7 per cent by 2030.

Like India, Japan is also facing resistance to its two new nuclear reactors. Takaki admitted that public opposition had delayed commencement of work, but added that they were trying to convince authorities and the people about the benefits of the nuclear power.

The time lost could be covered during constructing the plant as its about 10 years to commission a plant of about 1,100 MW fully at a cost of $35 billion.

For India (Rs 8 per kilowatt-hour), the cost is high considering the price for generating power from thermal or hydro is about Rs 3-4 per kilowatt-hour.

“That is the price one has to pay for producing environment friendly and safe nuclear power,” Takaki said.

In a bid to clear the air about safety of nuclear power, the plant officials said their records show that there has been basic minimum human damage because of any radiation leak. “The radiation measures by different agencies like Japanese government and local people show that it is less than the natural radiation within the plant. The cases of health problem because of radiation are falling and therefore, we can say nuclear energy is safe,” said Kazuyuki Haraguchi, head of the publicity department at the plant.

Last year’s earthquake in the region did not cause any damage to the nuclear plants in the region even though the six reactors were shut down for the security reasons. “All reactors are now functioning,” Haraguchi said.

Even nuclear waste has not been a problem with a recycling plant in Rokasho and even storage facility at the plant. A problem faced at some nuclear plants in France, Russia and even in India, the non-government organisations claim.

Unlike India, where the nuclear scene is dominated by the public sector, the private sector like General Electricials, Toshiba and Hitachi in Japan have pioneered in hot water reactors using uranium as fuel cells.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Check India news real-time updates, latest news on Hindustan Times and more across India.