Japan's ruling party wants 20 percent nuclear power in energy mix: media

[bananas]

Source: Reuters

Japan's ruling party wants a revived nuclear power sector to eventually make up a fifth of electricity generation, local media said, a controversial move for a public opposed to nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.

A panel of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party approved a proposal in a closed-door session on Thursday that would boost stable "baseload" energy supplies - nuclear, coal, hydroelectric and geothermal - to about 60 percent by 2030 from 40 percent now, according to reports in several major media outlets.

This can only be achieved, the Asahi newspaper said, by getting nuclear back up to 20 percent of the energy mix, given the difficulty of burning more goal amid a global push to cut greenhouse gases or wringing more hydro power out of Japan's heavily dammed rivers.

The LDP will present the proposal as early as next week to Abe, the Asahi said. Abe's government supports reviving nuclear power, but must walk a delicate line as it deliberates the best energy mix for the world's third-biggest economy.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.globalpost.com/article/6505606/2015/04/03/japans-ruling-party-wants-20-percent-nuclear-power-energy-mix-media

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Neocon Abe is going to force this on the citizens who don't want it:

ASAHI POLL: 59% oppose restart of nuclear reactors
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201403180058

[bananas]

1. 2012: Japan Can Eliminate Nuclear Power By 2030 - METI Minister

Nuclear power is completely unnecessary for Japan, as the previous head of METI pointed out:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014186971

Mon Aug 6, 2012, 10:30 PM
bananas (24,803 posts)

UPDATE: Japan Can Eliminate Nuclear Power By 2030 - METI Minister

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Rhiannon12866 (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum). If you believe this was done in error, please contact Rhiannon12866 to appeal.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Japan's trade and industry minister on Tuesday said that phasing out nuclear power by 2030 is possible and would not be a drag on the domestic economy.

"We can do it," Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yukio Edano told reporters at a press conference, referring to reducing Japan's reliance on nuclear energy to zero.

"I don't think the zero scenario is negative for Japan's economy. On the contrary, it can create growth" by driving technological innovation in renewable energy and energy efficiency, he said.

<snip>

Mr. Edano added that phasing out nuclear energy is as least as possible as the other two options. His comments come after Prime Minister Noda instructed his Cabinet late Monday to look into the implications of deciding to eliminate nuclear power.

<snip>

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120806-716903.html

[NickB79]

4. Mr. Edano appears to think coal and natural gas are good substitutes

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201205230056

Edano said that among the conditions that would have to be met in order to reduce dependence on nuclear energy were "progress in energy conservation, the spread of renewable energy sources and greater efficiency in thermal power generation using gas as a fuel."

https://www.stratfor.com/situation-report/mozambique-japanese-company-nearing-coal-deal

Japan's Nippon Steel Corp. is in final negotiations with the government of Mozambique to acquire development rights to a Mozambican coal mine, Japan Times reported Aug. 8. Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yukio Edano will likely visit Mozambique in the upcoming months as part of Tokyo's support for Japanese overseas coal mining development.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7f77b24c-281c-11e2-afd2-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3WIqKwnMK

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email [e-mail] to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7f77b24c-281c-11e2-afd2-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz3WIqhAWan

In recent weeks the minister has made courtesy calls to government and industry leaders in Japan, South Korea and India.

Included in his itinerary was a meeting in September with Yukio Edano, the Japanese trade minister, to gauge Japanese interest in purchasing liquefied natural gas from Canada’s west coast – an appetite that was sharpened by last year’s Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, which has heightened Japan’s reliance on imported gas.

[bananas]

2. Can Japan’s democracy survive Abe’s designs?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101697031

Mon Jul 7, 2014, 06:05 AM
bananas (24,802 posts)

Can Japan’s democracy survive Abe’s designs?

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2014/07/07/commentary/japan-commentary/can-japans-democracy-survive-abes-designs/

Can Japan’s democracy survive Abe’s designs?
by William Pesek
Bloomberg
Jul 7, 2014

<snip>

While extreme, Yamashiro’s fury isn’t uncommon. One day later, thousands demonstrated outside Abe’s residence against this “reinterpretation” of a constitution that he lacks the votes to amend. Public opposition didn’t stop Abe’s Cabinet from rubber-stamping his semantic end run around the law, which raises a vital question: Will Japan’s democracy survive Abe?

For the third time since taking office in December 2012 Abe did exactly what all too many of his 126 million people oppose. Earlier, he rushed into law a controversial secrecy bill that could send reporters and whiste-blowers to jail on varied and ambiguous grounds, then he pushed to restart reactors shut on safety grounds after the March 2011 Fukushima disaster.

<snip>

Along with the secrecy law, Abe stacked the board of national broadcaster NHK with like-minded conservatives. NHK, it’s worth adding, barely covered the suicide attempt in Shinjuku on Sunday, June 29. Is it because it didn’t fit with the Abe narrative?

<snip>

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Despite this: Fukushima Plant Chief: No idea how to decommission reactors…technology does not exist

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026454944

They want more nuclear.

[blkmusclmachine]

5. When did Abe first attend THE FAMILY'S Prayer Breakfast?