Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, center, with Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, left, and Sanae Takaichi, minister in charge of economic security, before a Cabinet meeting at the prime minister’s office on Feb. 10 (Koichi Ueda)

Japan can build new nuclear reactors and extend the maximum life of existing units beyond 60 years as part of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s green transformation policy approved by the Cabinet on Feb. 10. 

The approval marks a dramatic shift in the government’s stance on nuclear power. It will submit related bills to the current ordinary Diet session.

The government conducted a public comment process on the draft of the basic policy for one month after publishing it in December, inviting opinions on it from the public.

Although many respondents expressed opposition to the government’s new policies on nuclear power plants, it didn’t significantly alter the draft.

The basic policy mainly includes goals that the government thinks it should deliver in the next 10 years to achieve a decarbonated society by 2050.

It said that the government will utilize nuclear plants “to the maximum extent” in addition to renewable energy.

The basic policy said that the government will build new nuclear reactors, something that it had continually said in the past that it was “not considering at the moment.”

The policy change now states that the government will “develop and build” upgraded nuclear reactors that the government calls “innovative next-generation reactors.”

It said that the government will replace aging nuclear reactors for which a decision to decommission has been made with the next-generation reactors to be built on the sites of the former reactors.

In addition, the basic policy said that the government “will consider” building new nuclear reactors in areas where there are currently no nuclear plants.

The basic policy changed Japan’s existing rules on the operational period of nuclear reactors.

After the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in 2011, Japan decided that the life span of nuclear reactors should be 40 years, in principle, while allowing an extension of up to 20 years.

The basic plan said that an “additional extension is allowed only for certain suspension periods.”

This means that if nuclear reactors are shut down for some time due to reasons including the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s inspections for restarts or court injunctions against operations, such periods are excluded when counting operational periods of nuclear reactors.

So, if a reactor is shut down for 10 years for such reasons, its operational period can be extended to up to 70 years.

The government intends to submit bills to revise the law on the regulation of nuclear reactors and the Electricity Business Law to the current ordinary Diet session.

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