Japan Shuts Down Last Nuclear Reactor for ‘Regular Maintenance’
May 9th, 2012Does anyone know how long this “regular maintenance” period is supposed to last?
Via: CNN:
As Japan began its workweek Monday morning, the trains ran exactly on time, the elevators in thousands of Tokyo high-rises efficiently moved between floors, and the lights turned on across cities with nary a glitch.
What makes this Monday so remarkable is that for the first time in four decades, none of the energy is derived from a nuclear reactor.
Over the weekend, Japan’s last remaining nuclear reactor shut down for regular maintenance. In the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, reactors have not been allowed back on. Japan is now the first major economy to see the modern era without nuclear power.
Tomari Nuclear Power Plant’s reactor 3 in Hokkaido shut down Saturday evening in a much-watched move by government, industry and environmentalists, who are waged in a public battle over the future of Japan’s energy policy.
Related: Coal and Gas Assets ‘At Top of Japan’s Shopping List’
all reactors have to go offline every 15 months or so for inspections/maintenance. all 50 are offline because there is no agreement regarding safety standards adequate to authorise a restart. it is a stalemate at the moment. the local authorities get a say on safety standards.
the govt and power companies are desperate to begin restarts before the summer. they have spent the last three months pulling all sorts of dirty tricks to justify restarts. why? power shortages? no. that’s just their publicly given reason. in reality, my view is that if there are no restarts this summer, it’s all over for the nukes in Japan and they will never be able to operate them. which means, all the power companies will be insolvent because they will have to write of their prize “assets”. the bondholders and banks are going ape-shit in private, i bet you.
The summer will be interesting. I wonder how close to the edge they’ll get with 30% of capacity moved off of nuclear…
the “30% of capacity” line is more bs. it was 30% of the major power companies’ capacity if you didn’t count the numerous thermal plants they had mothballed. in reality, if they bought spare capacity from private firms who own their own generation plants and from the power companies that are not short and introduced incentives for reducing peak consumption, there is no chance of a shortfall. the potential shortfall is for a few hours in the afternoon on weekdays in July and August. that’s it. but they are trying to scare everyone by saying they will have to have rolling blackouts if the nukes aren’t restarted. it’s a total scam.