Have the utilities already forgotten the lessons of 3/11?

June 29, 2013

EDITORIAL: Utilities compromise their futures by rejecting anti-nuclear proposals

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/views/editorial/AJ201506290030

During recent general shareholders’ meetings, Japan’s nine electric utilities with nuclear power plants rejected all proposals by stockholders for a departure from reliance on nuclear energy.

We want to ask their executives, who insist on the need to restart their idled nuclear reactors: “Do you really believe management will be OK that way?”

The power retail market will be liberalized next spring, whereupon each household will be allowed to decide which company they will be purchasing electricity from. Management policies that have hardly changed from what they were before the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011 could face the exacting eyes of consumers when they make their selections.

The city governments of Osaka and Kyoto, which have major stakes in Kansai Electric Power Co., submitted proposals calling for a phaseout of nuclear power during a shareholders’ meeting of the Osaka-based utility, which relied on nuclear energy for 50 percent of its power supply before the Fukushima disaster.

One proposal called for keeping nuclear reactors offline as long as spent nuclear fuel disposal methods remain undecided. Another called for aggressive measures to introduce alternative energy sources that will replace nuclear power.

They were both reasonable proposals made from the standpoint that problems should not be put off and pushed on future generations.

But Kansai Electric’s management called for a rejection of the proposals, reiterating that the utility will seek early restarts of its reactors on the basic premise that safety will be ensured. One of its executive vice presidents was bold enough to say that the utility would, in the mid- to long term, have to build new nuclear reactors or replace existing ones.

Things were much the same at other regional utilities.

Chugoku Electric Power Co. reiterated its intention to push its plan to build a nuclear plant in Kaminoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Kyushu Electric Power Co. stressed its determination to seek a prompt restart of its Sendai nuclear plant in Kagoshima Prefecture, whereas Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, also made clear it wants to continue with its nuclear power operations.

It has been only four years since the Fukushima nuclear disaster caused suffering among local residents and induced a collapse of the “safety myth” about nuclear power generation. We are only left to gape at the brazen way a return to nuclear power is being sought, as if the lessons of the disaster have been forgotten.

Behind the tough stance of the utilities is the central government, which defined nuclear power as an “important base-load power source” when it endorsed a Basic Energy Plan last year. Earlier this month, Tokyo approved a draft plan to have nuclear energy account for between 20 and 22 percent of Japan’s total power supply in fiscal 2030. Achieving that goal would require the operation of existing nuclear reactors beyond the standard service life of 40 years or the building of new reactors.

The use of nuclear energy has been promoted in postwar Japan as a “national policy managed by the private sector.” One could say that the utilities are compromising themselves by believing that they only have to follow the central government, whatever the public may think of them.

Nuclear power operations are obviously turning into a business segment with uncertain future prospects.

Sixteen of Japan’s fleet of 43 nuclear reactors have been in service for more than 30 years, which means their operators will soon have to decide whether to keep them alive or decommission them. Extending their service lives is expected to cost the companies hundreds of billions of yen (billions of dollars) because safety regulations were strengthened after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

We also wonder how exactly the utilities intend to win the understanding of residents and local governments in adjacent areas if they ever plan to build new reactors. We can hardly believe the utilities, which are only looking toward the central government, have the determination or any blueprints to do so.

“I can only have the impression that you are going to commit a double suicide with nuclear power,” one stockholder said during Kansai Electric’s shareholders’ meeting.

Members of the utilities’ management should rethink the wisdom of continuing with their old ways.

--The Asahi Shimbun, June 28