FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NUCLEAR POWER PLANT, Japan: The United Nations nuclear watchdog chief visited Japan’s stricken Fukushima plant on Wednesday (Feb 19), the day after Tokyo approved an energy plan that marks a return to nuclear power to meet growing demand for AI.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is monitoring Japan’s efforts to decommission the Fukushima Daiichi plant after a 2011 earthquake-triggered tsunami killed 18,000 people and set off the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
As IAEA head Rafael Grossi arrived in Japan on Tuesday, the cabinet adopted a plan to increase reliance on nuclear power to help meet growing energy demand from artificial intelligence and microchip factories.
“At a moment where Japan is embarking on a gradual return to nuclear energy in its national energy mix, it is important that this is also done in complete safety and with the confidence of the society,” Grossi said after meeting the foreign minister.
Japan had previously vowed to “reduce reliance on nuclear power as much as possible”.
But this pledge was dropped from the latest Strategic Energy Plan – which includes an intention to make renewables the country’s top power source by 2040.
Under the plan, nuclear power will account for around 20 per cent of Japan’s energy supply by 2040, up from 5.6 per cent in 2022.
The return to nuclear comes as the country is decommissioning Fukushima Daiichi, a process expected to take decades with the most dangerous part still ahead: removing around 880 tonnes of radioactive debris from the reactors.
Grossi, making his fifth visit to Fukushima, viewed the vast “interim” soil storage facilities near the plant for the first time.
Around 13 million cubic metres of soil and 300,000 cubic metres of ash from incinerated organic material – enough to fill 10 stadiums – were scraped from land in the region to remove harmful radiation.
On Wednesday, trucks and construction vehicles went back and forth between several areas where hundreds of large soil-filled black bags were stacked, some covered by a thin layer of snow.
Hanging on a locked fence around the storage site was a sign displaying the radiation level.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/japan-fukushima-nuclear-un-iaea-rafael-grossi-visit-4946496
