JAPAN ATOMIC INDUSTRIAL FORUM, INC.

6 July, 2018

Strategic Energy Plan Approved by Cabinet: FEPC Chairman Calls It “Key Policy of the Nation”

On July 3, the Japanese government formally approved the fifth Strategic Energy Plan. Given that three years had passed since the previous plan was issued in 2014, the Strategic Policy Committee, under the Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy, began deliberating the latest revisions in August 2017. The committee finalized its draft in May, taking into account proposals by the Round Table for Studying Energy Situations under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).

The draft included development of a long-term scenario toward 2050 in response to targets under the Paris Agreement, an international framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The new plan incorporates scenarios for implementation of a 2030 energy mix, and casts an eye on 2050 as well. Toward achieving the desired 2030 energy mix (a product of the long-term energy supply-and-demand outlook issued in July 2015)—efforts toward which it deems “incomplete so far”—the new plan adheres firmly to the principle of “3 E’s + S”: namely, the conventional three “E’s” of energy security, economy and environmental protection, plus the “S” of safety. It calls for energy conservation generally, and measures and responses tailored to each energy source, as follows: renewable energies (targeted at...more

4 July, 2018

Court of Second Instance Approves Operation of Ohi NPPs

In a lawsuit brought by an anti-nuclear group demanding that the Kansai Electric Power Co. (Kansai EP) halt operation of its Ohi-3 and -4 Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) in Ohi Town, Fukui Prefecture, the Kanazawa Branch (Presiding Judge Masayuki Naito) of the Nagoya High Court on July 4 reversed the order of the Fukui District Court, which had found for the original plaintiff and prohibited operation – ruling on appeal against the anti-nuclear group.

Since issuance of new regulatory standards in the wake of the accident at Fukushima Daiichi NPPs, anti-nuclear groups have been coordinating their efforts and acting strategically. Across the country they filed numerous lawsuits and requests for temporary injunctions prohibiting the restarting of NPPs. Because some district court (first instance) judgments were rendered against restarts, a ruling this time at the level of a high court was a matter of great interest. In the lower court decision on the Ohi NPPs rendered in May 2014, a halt was ordered to NPP operations on the basis of there being “specific risks of losing cooling capability for the reactors in an earthquake and leakage of radioactive substances from spent nuclear fuel.” In an earlier appeal hearing before finalization, ho...more