Japan to abandon nuclear power by 2030s: report

About nuclear energy in Italy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Italy

[quote]Nuclear power in Italy is a controversial topic. Italy started to produce nuclear energy in the early 1960s, but all plants were closed by 1990 following the Italian nuclear power referendum. An attempt to change the decision was made in 2008 by the government (see also nuclear power debate), which called the nuclear phase-out a "terrible mistake, the cost of which totalled over €50 billion".[1] Minister of Economic Development Claudio Scajola proposed to build as many as 10 new reactors, with the goal of increasing the nuclear share of Italy's electricity supply to about 25% by 2030.[2] However, following the 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents, the Italian government put a one-year moratorium on plans to revive nuclear power.[3] On 11—12 June 2011, Italian voters passed a referendum to cancel plans for new reactors. Over 94% of the electorate voted in favor of the construction ban, with 55% of the eligible voters participating, making the vote binding.[4][/quote]

As you can see, basically Fukushima disaster saved us.

many countries cotinued *

continued

All globally, except Japan, see no nuclear energy option as common sense..

Sadly, you are wrong. Many countries continue to rely upon nuclear power. Also, Germans, Swiss, Australians and Italians decided to abandon nuclear energy only after Fukushima. It's easy to say they have "common sense" when they decided something only after this disaster. In Europe, we had already had Chernobyl, but many countries cotinued to use nuclear energy anyway. In Italy, after Chernobyl, thanks to a referendum we could say "no" to nuclear power. Anyway, the last year our government did a new referendum about nuclear power. It was in June. I can say that Fukushima disaster saved Italy. Maybe, if this disaster didn't happen, this time at the referendum people who wanted nuclear power would have won . Anyway, Italy buys nuclear energy from France, and if some disaster happen there, we are in danger too.

Why wait until 2030? Keep them all shut down and we are free of npp now in 2012.

For advanced societies that require large amounts of energy to remain advanced, the only viable sources of energy for the foreseeable future are nuclear power and fossil fuels. A sound energy policy would make use of both of these sources of energy to provide diversity and energy security. But clearly we should strive to make improvements in both nuclear technology and safety. Several advanced reactor concepts are being evaluated throughout the world for the next generation of nuclear energy. The U.S. Congress initiated the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) project in 2005. Based on a systematic evaluation of several next-generation concepts, the Department of Energy (DOE) selected a Modular High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (MHR) as the concept for NGNP. A key design feature of the MHR is intrinsic safety. The MHR can survive a complete loss-of-coolant accident, including failure to insert control rods, without reliance on any emergency systems. As the reactor heats up, natural processes will shut it down. Because the reactor core and nuclear fuel are composed entirely of refractory and ceramic materials with capacity to absorb heat at high temperatures without structural degradation, there is no damage to the reactor, i.e., the reactor cannot melt down under any circumstances. No public evacuation is required, even next to the plant’s entrance gate. With its high temperature capability and efficient heat utilization, the MHR can generate electricity with high efficiency and displace fossil fuels for a number of petrochemical and industrial applications, including production of hydrogen for future clean fuel utilization.

Japan has also been developing MHR technology on its own. Sitting above and just south of the small fishing village of Oarai, and about 100 miles south of the Fukushima reactor complex, is the Japan Atomic Energy Agency Oarai Research Establishment, which includes the High Temperature engineering Test Reactor (HTTR). The HTTR was commissioned in 1998 and is an operational, engineering-scale prototype of the MHR. The HTTR has been used to demonstrate the intrinsic safety characteristics of the MHR and has also demonstrated sustained operation with a 950C coolant outlet temperature. By comparison, conventional water-cooled reactors operate with a 300C coolant outlet temperature, and are obviously not intrinsically safe.

Perhaps these events that occurred in Japan can also lay the foundation for developing, demonstrating, and commercializing a next generation of nuclear power with intrinsic safety. International collaboration among the U.S., Japan, and other nations on the MHR would provide a relatively quick path for achieving this goal. More information about the HTTR can be obtained from:

http://www.jaea.go.jp/english/news/p110112/index.shtml

http://www.jaea.go.jp/04/o-arai/nhc/index.html

Radioactive substance that is produced by nuclear tests, nuclear warfare or an explosion of a nuclear power plant goes up into the ionosphere over the Arctic Circle and reacts with magnetism of the earth thereby destroying the thermosphere. The global environment is being undermined by atomic energy. Japan should be thankful for small mercies to realize that to abandon nuclear power is inevitable and vital.

the sun rise in the water and creates a river, the sun is the reason for hydropower. how much is the power of the sun? why not direct sun with thermodynamics?

Didn't TEPCO announce they have no money for renewable energy alternatives just a few days back?

Japan to abandon nuclear power by 2030s: report

What a vague timeline for elimination of nuclear energy?!!!!! Oh, my God!! This even means nuclear energy can go on as far as a few seconds to 2040!!!!!!! Meantime what will happen? With governments changing every half year, by 2030, who knows? maybe even more new nuclear plants would have been built! People do not want nuclear electricity. It must be stopped.

Without even the Fukushima type of disaster hapening in their countries, Germans, Swiss, Australians and Italians have shown the way. Japan only looks odd, sitting on life threatening earthquakes, prone to tsunamis and typhoons currently with irradiated everything, not through with burrying all its dead as a result of the earthquake/tsunami, not compansated and resettled the affected; yet stil pondering over whether, and if so, when to stop nuclear electricity!!...All globally, except Japan, see no nuclear energy option as common sense..

I think it would be more correct that the use of "conventional fission reactors" will be phased out by 2030. That is just common sense as they are obsolete technology so they will not replace them and the ones in service are all at the end of their life. All they have to do is nothing, which is what they are best at.

By 2030, Korea should have come up with a better solution and they can just buy it from them :)

Ok, replace everything by Microwave powerplants in space.

What would it take for some people to believe stories like this?

I think the skepticism of Lilic and Nessie is healthy.

The nuclear village will bide its time, but will do it's best to come back I am sure.

As the great philosopher Bruce Lee once said, "Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind."

For anyone still around in 2030, I have a fiver that Japan will backtrack.

Then you wake-up from your dream...