Antinuclear

Before the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami on May 11, 2011, Japan was planning to increase nuclear power’s share in its energy bucket to 50 percent as of 2030, from 26 percent at the time.

Today, the revised plans vary from zero to a maximum 25 percent of nuclear, the Nuclear Policy Unit Cabinet Secretariat Yoshinori Tanaka told journalists in Tokyo on Dec. 13.

Along with purchases from Qatar and  Australia,  the country is looking to buy LNG from the U.S., he also revealed. However, other officials have stated that the U.S. is primarily considering meeting its domestic demand first.

A new Japanese strategy document prioritizes renewables, but such projects will take time to fill the significant energy gap in Asia’s second largest economy.

Japan, which was once energy self-sufficient, this year and in 2011 bought large amounts of LNG, along with coal and oil, to meet the gap that emerged after the closure of its nuclear facilities, the assistant press secretary of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Masaru Sato, told the Hürriyet Daily News……

The country’s newly founded Nuclear Regulation Authority, a governmental body focusing exclusively on nuclear safety, will start inspecting nuclear plants to restart operations only in June 2013, showing that a nuclear comeback is also not on the agenda in the immediate short term…..http://www.energytribune.com/68237/japan-shifts-to-lng-dependency-from-nuclear-eyes-us-fuel