Why Japan Insists on Nuclear Power

More than three years have passed since the Fukushima accident. Six nuclear reactors knocked out in a single blow, three experiencing partial or total meltdown of the core, heavy damages to the spent fuel pools, hydrogen explosions, and widespread contamination of the surrounding land and sea. A veritable disaster, which has nipped in the bud the timid reawakening of international investment in nuclear energy, with several countries planning (not for the first time, actually) gradual exit out of nuclear or interrupting planned development of power plants.

What about Japan? In the aftermath of the tragic accident, the then Prime Minister Naoto Kan vowed to make the country go off nuclear. In the meantime, all nuclear power stations, including those unaffected by the earthquake, were stopped, and subjected to strict controls and monitoring with the idea of their total decommissioning. Three years after the disaster, the political wind has changed. The current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is in favor of restarting the existing nuclear plants, and it could have not been differently, at least in the short term, since nuclear energy can cover up to 30% of total electricity production and can only be substituted by massive fossil fuel imports. Furthermore, Japanese utilities are likely to be unable to withstand the heavy losses that the closing of nuclear plants would impose.

However, the idea remained that in the longer term Japan was committed to define an exit strategy out of nuclear, which was viewed as wholly justified by the Fukushima failure. Nothing could be further from the truth: the national energy plan that was recently approved calls for the full reactivation of all the nuclear reactors deemed functional and the completion of those under construction.

How can such a policy choice be explained? There are technical reasons and pure economic logic. After all, wasn't the main technical cause of the Fukushima accident the a design error in the location of emergency generators? And on the economic side, one could argue that Japan cannot give up the supposed cost advantages of nuclear power. But is it really so? And isn't the banality of the design error all the more worrying? And have the economic advantages of nuclear energy proved beyond doubt?

Or is such perseverance motivated by the worsening of Japan's trade balance, due to rising oil and gas imports? And, even if it were costly, isn't nuclear a domestic energy source that reduces dependency from abroad? Maybe.

Nevertheless, in the case of Japan some philosophical and cultural reasons can also be invoked. Those familiar with Japan and its social values, and this can also be seen in the small things of everyday life, know that a Japanese person cannot concede defeat or admit failure. Even in a country marked by nuclear tragedy, to persevere is not irrational, but cause for individual pride and national redemption.