Posted on 03/16/2024 7:42:19 PM PDT by george76
Japan is stepping up efforts to have local authorities approve the restart of the world’s biggest nuclear power plant, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility north of Tokyo...
Next week, Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Ken Saito, is expected to ask the local governor of the Niigata prefecture to approve the restart of the power plant..
In the wake of the Fukushima disaster in 2011, Japan closed all its nuclear power plants that underwent rigorous safety checks and inspections.
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa has been offline since 2012, while the Nuclear Regulation Authority in 2021 barred the plant’s operator, utility Tepco, from operating the facility due to safety breaches.
The regulator lifted the operational ban on Kashiwazaki-Kariwa in December 2023, paving the way for the restart, which needs the approvals of the Niigata prefecture, the city of Kashiwazaki, and the village of Kariwa to resume operations.
Japan is bringing back nuclear power as a key energy source, looking to protect its energy security in the wake of the energy crisis that led to surging fossil fuel prices. The resource-poor country which needs to import about 90% of its energy requirements, made a U-turn in its nuclear energy policy at the end of 2022, as its energy import bill soared amid the energy crisis and surging costs to import LNG at record-high prices. The Japanese government confirmed in December 2022 a new policy for nuclear energy, which the country had mostly abandoned since the Fukushima disaster in 2011. A panel of experts under the Japanese Ministry of Industry has also decided that Japan would allow the development of new nuclear reactors and allow available reactors to operate after the current limit of 60 years.
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For those interested, roughly 120 square miles of solar panels, plus a huge amount of batteries, would be needed to replace this plant with ‘sustainable’ generation.
Presumably the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear facility has made doubly sure its emergency diesel generators and fuel supply are located at some distance from the shore, in case any earthquake-generated tsunami floods the area forcing the reactor to stop generating power, but still needing power to circulate cooling water.
It’s easier and quicker to lay new power lines from the generator to the reactor than to replace the generators flooded by a tsunami.
Smart move. Way to go Japan!
The environmentalist movement has turned into a death cult. They literally want only one out of every 16 people living on earth now to be alive in some future utopia after murdering 93% of the population worldwide.
These freaks need to be brought to heel.
*For those interested, roughly 120 square miles of solar panels, plus a huge amount of batteries, would be needed to replace this plant with ‘sustainable’ generation.*
SF is 50 square miles. Two and a half of them.
Japan has no choice.
Windmills to provide all of American’s electricity needs would take a land area a bit larger than the state of Nevada. The windmills also would make that much land area uninhabitable.
Nuclear fission plants to generate the same amount of electricity could be fit in an area no larger than Dallas County, and the bulk of that area would still be habitable.
If the bottom 84% of the world population were somehow eliminated, there’d still be a bottom 84% of whoever was left to be the new underclass. And they won’t like it one bit.
The current state of technology of solar power is only fit for off the grid applications. Solar farms are wasteful eyesores.
I’m sure they learned a lot from the Fukushima disaster.
For one thing, to make sure the backup generators are placed high enough to avoid flooding.
It’s ridiculous to abandon a technology because of an accident. You learn from the accident and make things better the next time. This is how flying has become the safest form of travel.
Way to go, Japan!
*The current state of technology of solar power is only fit for off the grid applications. Solar farms are wasteful eyesores.*
Sounds like masturbating. Do it for yourself. Certainly not affecting anybody else. The farms? Points to collectivism
Texas has huge Wind and Solar farms but they are very far from the places that use the electricity. This week wind and solar were more than 50 percent of the generation for the entire state. But; There is not enough transmission to handle windy and sunny days. A good problem I guess.
Now if Texas had been building nuclear power plants up near Dallas and over by Houston the cost would be about the same as that wind and solar.
Makes no sense to me but whatever.
Just look at the amazing things SpaceX has accomplished by learning from their failures. However, I wouldn’t suggest that the nuclear industry follow SpaceX’s fly, fail, iterate, and succeed model too closely. I’m pretty sure the surrounding residents wouldn’t tolerate very many “RUDs” (Rapid Unplanned Dissassembly) from their local nuclear plant.
I don’t think solar cells will ever provide a large viable
grid. If people want to create a home power plant using
them, it can make sense.
I use solar cells and batteries to provide some of my
power needs, and use then for times when the power goes out.
If 40% of homes (just a figure tossed out), can become
self-sufficient, that takes a load off the grid.
Businesses still use the most electricity, and I’m not
sure how many of them could use the household model to
become self-sufficient.
Small businesses may be able to. I’d think that could
help them survive power interruptions with a lot less
loss than would have been experienced if they couldn’t.
All that needs to be done is make sure the plant is above the highest tsunami wave height and as a backup have backup generators for one or the other 50hz and 60hz power distribution.
Exactly. The plant was fine and survived the quake and even initial flood until it got to the generators.
After Hurricane Sandy hit NYC their were cases of hospitals and data centers and other major buildings having power failures. Due to NYC codes, bulk fuel storage could only be in the basement, while the generators were often roof top a mechanical floor just above the lobby. Water flooded the basements and shorted the fuel pumps and the day tanks ran dry. Their was one story of one data center where they formed a bucket brigade to keep things running until the pumps were fixed.
In the aftermath they made changes to move critical eclectic gear, fuel pumps and generators on higher levels so even if they got water in the basements they wouldn’t loose emergency power.
Make sure they paint a big red bullseye on it.
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