The proposal was presented at the subcommittee\u2019s previous meeting on November 28 as an \u201caction plan,\u201d and was revised based on opinions and views from the members and others.<\/p>\n
Under its basic principles, the first of which is a re-acknowledgement that \u201csafety comes first in the development and use of nuclear energy,\u201d there are six pillars:<\/p>\n
(1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Integrating the influence and capabilities of all relevant parties to facilitate NPP restarts.<\/p>\n
(2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Extending operating lifetimes, with top priority on safety.<\/p>\n
(3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Considering the development and construction of next-generation advanced reactors.<\/p>\n
(4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Speeding up the processes of reprocessing, decommissioning and final disposal, and more.<\/p>\n
(5)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Maintaining and strengthening supply chains.<\/p>\n
(6)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Contributing to resolving globally common issues.<\/p>\n
The draft action guidelines in the proposal will soon be presented to the advisory committee\u2019s Strategic Policy Committee for its contributions to \u201chow to carry out nuclear policy in the future.\u201d The Japanese government\u2019s Green Transformation (GX) Implementation Council (chaired by Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio) is expected to present \u201chow-to\u201d specifics by the end of this year.<\/p>\n
At the previous subcommittee meeting on November 28, a consensus was formed among the members relating to a new mechanism for dealing with operating lifetimes: namely, in support of an option for considering additional extensions to a certain upper limit.<\/p>\n
The draft action guidelines also state that, under the current \u201c40+20 years\u201d approach, the calculations of operating lifetimes will not include those periods when operation was suspended after the giant March 2011 earthquake due to the following reasons:<\/p>\n
— Changes to the legal system.<\/p>\n
— Executive orders, recommendations, administrative guidance, etc.<\/p>\n
— Provisional injunctions issued by courts, etc., and other reasons that operators could not foresee.<\/p>\n
As for the development and construction of next-generation advanced reactors, it is clearly stated in the proposal that\u2014deliberations at a working group under the subcommittee being taken into account\u2014\u201cactualization will be embarked upon starting with the replacement of reactors whose decommissioning has been decided upon, keeping progress on back-end issues in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Concerning that, ONO Toru, member of the Committee on Energy and Resources at the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), asked that accelerated attention be given to the matter, as it was important from the viewpoint of maintaining the competitiveness of Japan\u2019s nuclear industry.<\/p>\n
Subcommittee member ENDO Noriko, project professor at the Research Centers and Institutes of the Keio University Global Research Institute, spoke in terms of consistency with the Strategic Energy Plan issued in the fall of last year. She was concerned that, in the current situation, the goal for nuclear energy to account for 20-22% of total generated electricity by 2030 could not be achieved, and asked that consideration be started as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
JAIF President ARAI Shiro, attending as a special member, talked about maintaining and strengthening supply chains. Approximately 90% of construction materials for domestic nuclear power plants (NPPs) are procured within Japan, and related technology has been accumulated domestically. For the sustainable use of nuclear energy, he said, the production and supply of quality equipment and components, construction and maintenance were essential. In the same way that energy self-sufficiency is important, it is important that supply chain challenges be met consistently within the country.<\/p>\n
With the recognition that, toward participation in foreign projects, there will be opportunities to present Japan\u2019s high-level of nuclear technology to the world and to contribute to nuclear safety and reduce global warming, JAIF displayed its attitude to work proactively on the matter.<\/p>\n
Apart from the above, the subcommittee members also offered opinions on strengthening back-end measures, including MOX fuel reprocessing, and the necessity of two-way communications between electricity-consuming and electricity-producing areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The proposal was presented at the subcommittee\u2019s previous meeting on November 28 as an \u201caction plan,\u201d and was revised based on opinions and views from the members and others. Under its basic principles, the first of which is a re-acknowledgement that \u201csafety comes first in the development and use of nuclear energy,\u201d there are six […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[780,742,32],"class_list":["post-6240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-gx","tag-kishida","tag-meti"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6241,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6240\/revisions\/6241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}