In April 2023 the Japanese government approved a new legislation in nuclear energy that allows to extend the operation of nuclear plants beyond the current limit, which It is established in 60 years. In practice this simply means that if a nuclear plant can operate safely beyond those six decades, the regulation allows you to do so. In this new context the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant has ahead A promising future.
And it has it because in December 2023 the Japanese nuclear organism, the NRA (Nuclear regulation authority), he raised the veto he imposed on this installation in March 2011, shortly after the accident of Fukushima Daiichi’s nuclear power plant. If we stick to the installed power this plant housed in the town of Niigata, northwest of Tokyo (Japan), it is The largest nuclear power plant on the planet.
It is managed by the Tepco company (Tokyo Electric Power Company), which is the third largest electricity company on the planet, and incorporates seven boiling water reactors that are able to jointly deliver more than 8,200 MWE. Security is the most important thing, and after what happened in Fukushima, the NRA decided to withdraw the operation license until Tepco could implement in this installation the new security measures derived from what you learned in 2011.
Japan is contemplating nuclear energy with very different eyes
The Japanese government is determined to get Japan measured from you to you with the main powers of The semiconductor industry. And of course it is not an unattainable ambition. In fact, some of the companies with the greatest specific weight in the industry of lithography equipmentlike Tokyo Electron, Canon or Nikon, they are Japanese. “We are working with our clients to develop technologies that teach four generations in the future.” This Declaration of Nobuto DoiVice President of Tokyo Electron, is a declaration of intentions.
Japan’s strategy does not only require reinforcing its presence in the integrated circuit industry; It also bets on tuning a large number of data centers for artificial intelligence (AI). In fact, Jensen Huang, the general director of Nvidia, has confirmed that your company will put about in Japan a network of specialized data centers in AI. In addition, Huang has anticipated that this infrastructure will deploy from the hand of Japanese companies. All this sounds very good, but it has a high cost in energy terms and the Japanese government has not overlooked it.
In 2050 Japan will need to have increased its electricity generation capacity between 35 and 50%
In fact, its current electrical infrastructure would be unable to serve semiconductor factories and data centers for AI that will arrive in the future. The Japanese administration has recognized that in 2050 it will need to have increased its electricity generation capacity between 35 and 50%. It is not negligible, of course. In addition, your plan also has to face the decarbonization of your energy system to which you have committed.
Today Japan’s fossil fuel supply depends largely on the Middle East, which led to the approval of a law that promotes investment in decarbonization by a total of a total of some some 962,000 million dollars. The Japanese government has confirmed that its strategy to solve the energy needs that it will have within two decades requires betting on the latest photovoltaic cells that They incorporate Perovskitasby floating wind turbines that are installed in the sea, and also for nuclear energy.
In fact, during the next few years many of the nuclear power plants that were deactivated after Fukushima will return to operation, and, in addition, Japan will build new nuclear power plants equipped with fourth generation reactors. The project of this closest type in time is led by the Kansa Electric Power company because plan to resume studies They precede the construction of a new nuclear reactor in its Mihama plant, housed in Fukui prefecture, west of Tokyo. If this project will be consolidated as the first nuclear reactor that is built in Japan after Fukushima disaster in 2011.
Image | Tepco
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