TOKYO — Japan would be foolish to abandon nuclear power, the operator of the ravaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station warned Wednesday, saying the company had not ruled out reopening two of the plant’s less-damaged reactors as well as four others at a nearby sister site.
The country is expected to outline a new energy policy, prompted by the disaster at Fukushima, and one option the government has explored would phase out all nuclear power by 2030.
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Mr. Hirose is part of a chorus of voices urging Japan not to turn away from nuclear power. Japan’s largest and most influential business lobby, the Nippon Keidanren, has also warned that a nuclear shutdown would create an energy shortage that would cripple economic growth. Japan once relied on nuclear power for about 30 percent of its electricity.Nuclear opponents have argued that Japan can make up for lost capacity by temporarily shifting to fossil fuels while the country races to expand alternative sources of energy. Japan made it through a sweltering summer with just two reactors running, they say — proof that the nation could do away with reactors altogether.
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“When people think of these new energy sources, they only think of best-case scenarios,” Mr. Hirose said. “But we have a responsibility to provide a cheap and stable source of power. We have to be realistic.”
Continue reading at Tokyo Power Company President Urges Retaining Reactors
We might be forgiven for thinking at times that there are no “lessons learned,” as that corporate phrase goes.
For Mr. Hirose, Fukushima might as well have never happened. And he and others like him will continue to think this way with impunity.
Another reason why it’s crucial to assign legal responsibility, for starts.