By Jaime Ortega.
For the second time since the Fukushima crisi, Japan will go tonight into a new nuclear blackout period when they start to turn the only reactor that is operating in the country.
The reactor number 4 of the Oi plant in Fukui Prefecture , west of the country , had started working at 23.00 MH. They will turn another one soon.
It is only two reactors of the 50 with which the country, which have continued inactive after the Fukushima crisis of 2011, and the overall review of the plants safety could take two to three months.
This new nuclear blackout comes at a time when the government raises followed in approval last July of a new safety regulation, reviving some of the reactors out of the current operation.
In all, a dozen of them , including two of the Oi plant’s , expected to receive authorization under the new rules of the Japanese authorities. In addition, the transient break coincides with the controversy around the situation of the rugged terrain central Fukushima , which was severely damaged by a tsunami in March 2011 and still has managed problems to control leakage of radioactive water .
Forgoing nuclear energy
After the Fukushima crisis became a concern around the safety of nuclear power plants, Japan decided in May last year to stop the supply of this type of energy and limited it to zero for the first time in 42 years. However, two months later, on July 1 , the Government authorized the Oi plant to resume operations and prevent serious blackouts in the Kansai region, the second most populous country.
No other reactor has been launched since then, although the current Conservative government , which came to power last December, defends new returns and investments to bet on japanese nuclear energy.
This step divides many Japanese that were first traumatized by the terrible consequences of the Fukushima accident and others were concerned about rising energy costs in the country.
Before the crisis triggered by the Fukushima accident the worst since Chernobyl in 1986 , the country’s 50 commercial reactors generated 30% of Japan’s total energy .
Inadequate supply
In order to ensure the energy demand needed in large cities such as Tokyo, whose metropolitan area has more than 30 million inhabitants, the utilities have boosted the use of thermal plants, which has increased spending on oil as gas imports have tripled.
The prime minister, Shinzo Abe , has made it clear that the commitment to nuclear energy should continue as part of its efforts to revive the dormant Japanese economy , also heavily damaged after the 2011 crisis.
However, polls show opposition that this type of nuclear energy has beens criticized against the government for evasiveness and unclear alternatives in explaining that the few reactors longer function and what role in the decision nearby communities plants to be reactivated.
On Saturday, about 8,000 people rallied in Tokyo against nuclear power and reactivation of plants, a protest that was led by Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe.
The Japanese novelist said that “we need to keep talking about what happens in Fukushima even though everyone speaks of Tokyo 2020 ” and defended with a commitment “ an environment in which our children can live without fear,” reports Kyodo .
The complicated cleaning of Fukushima, which is expected to last for decades, remains a major challenge for the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power ( TEPCO ), which acknowledged this summer that is pouring hundreds of tons of radioactive water into the sea from the basement of the plant.
This is the natural aquifer water flowing through the basements of reactor buildings that are mixed with contaminated water that cools the reactor .
