Japan plans to authorize the expansion of its nuclear power plants

TOKYO – Japan’s Economy Ministry is considering allowing the expansion of nuclear power plants while older ones are being decommissioned, according to the Asahi newspaper.

The authorization would likely be part of revisions to Japan’s national energy strategy, which is revised every three years, the newspaper reported, without specifying where the information came from. The revision should include a provision allowing power companies that dismantle nuclear power plants to build new reactors at existing nuclear power plants, according to Asahi.

The revised energy strategy is expected to define the change as a “replacement” of nuclear power plants, and the number of plants will not increase, according to the report.

Nuclear power plants remain a politically sensitive issue in Japan after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. The current version of the national energy strategy states that Japan will reduce its dependence on nuclear power as much as possible.

Japan has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 46% by 2030 and become carbon neutral by the middle of this century. BLOOMBERG