The tsunami that occurred in Japan on March 11, 2011 destroyed nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which provide 30% of the country’s electricity. Since Japan has to rely on 85% of importation of energy requirements, the accident caused the huge problem of Japan’s economy because importation of natural fuel causes of the high cost. However, rebuilding of nuclear plants would cost Japan 100 million dollars a day, so now Japan has to depend on new energy sources for the future.
In order to manage the crisis, Japan’s energy companies and utilities have taken several steps.
· After the accident of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the government announced, “Japan’s dependency on nuclear energy will be reduced as much as possible in the medium-range and long-range future.” Also it declared weaknesses of the energy system and suggested a development of new energy policy.
· The Energy & Environment Council was established to recommend on Japan’s energy future to 2050. It focuses on future dependence on nuclear power.
· In September 2012, the Energy & Environment Council released “Innovative Energy and Environment Strategy”. It recommends a reducing of nuclear power by 2030.
· In order to provide the electricity needed, Japanese companies started buying rights for natural gas for selling to utilities.
· Nation is forced to cut their consumption of electricity, especially during the summer. Utilities have made new plan of electricity charges for peak times.
· The government is ready to announce the plan of discontinuation of nuclear power generation in 2030s under a new national energy policy.
After the accident occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, people have been scared of radiation affects for their health. The government should have figured out what was happening, and had to respond to the problems quickly. (not meeting Gather information), However the government kept saying anything happened at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was out of imagination. They shifted off their responsibility. They were not very efficient. It seems that the government did not collect enough information. Japan is well known as a country that has many earthquakes; the government could have estimated that the nuclear plant might have been destroyed if a tsunami happened since the plants are built near the ocean. If the government were well aware of it, Japan now does not have to worry about the dependency of new energy sources and suffer from huge deficit. ( not be ready to fight fire with fire)
Since Japan does not want to rely on a fossil fuel, such as coal, government’s plan of new energy policy that concerns Japan’s energy dependence for the future seems good. It is expensive to import natural gas now, but if the efficient way to cool natural gas to liquid for transport with lower cost is found, Japan can import more natural gas, and stay away from use of fossil fuel and nuclear energy.
(meeting Waiting can be a strategy, respect the danger of the unfamiliar)
Disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant told the world that having the nuclear energy plants does not have many advantages. It has so many known and unknown risks. In fact, people live in Japan do not feel safe. They are afraid of having health problems for themselves and future generations. Thus, the accident has let the world to consider about shifting the use of safe and clean energy resources. I thing this meets to Value the skeptic.
While there were many things that the Japanese government failed to do during the tsunami crisis, I like how they are using the disaster as an opportunity to build for the future in regards to energy policy. It's smart and practical to move away from dependency on fossil fuels and become a leader in clean energy. It seems that part of this strategy would be to find more "homegrown" sources of energy so to be less dependent on imports.
ReplyDeleteIt’s hard to imagine that the Government of Japan failed to asses all risks associated with the nuclear power station’s proximate location to the ocean. They were not able to anticipate possible damages associated with tsunami and, sadly, did not manage to respond to this particular disaster with required speed and knowledge. They seemed to be unaware of the actual destruction immediately after the catastrophe and failed to communicate the degree of danger to Japanese people and to the rest of the world in the timely manner. One thing is clear here, the vital information was missing which impeded Government to assess the crisis properly and respond quickly.
ReplyDeleteI do think they could have prevented considering Japan experience frequent earthquakes. The goverment is saying that the Tsunami disaster was beyond imagination, but the crisis usually happens unexpectedly.It is such a sad reality that the government still worries about energy dependency over peoples' health who are terrified over being exposed to radiation. Why did they have to take so long to make the right decisions? They must be prepared for crisis decision making before crisis happens. Also, lack of ethical reasoning in this kind of critical case is unacceptable.
ReplyDeleteIt is terrible that people live in fear of radiation contamination to their and future generations. Its also hard to imagine that a country still relied on nuclear power in this day in age. Although it is extremely unfortunate that such a tragedy had happened to such a great amount of people, this tragedy has paved a new path to Japan's future development of "clean energy".
ReplyDeleteAs Americans, we understand that not every country is not going to be as advanced as we are. However, as mentioned, the fact that countries like Japan continue to rely on nuclear energy, which poses as a hazard to residents is unimaginable. Thankfully, Japan is taking this desaster as a way to advance itself and the lives of people so that they can live without fear of contamination or residing in a country that may be fatal. The Japanese government did not handle the disaster as efficiently as many would have liked it to. However, the problem with natural disasters is that you can never be fully prepared or have set expectations for them; without this, it becomed difficult to deduce a 100% efficient solution, but I think the steps they are taking for the future is a great way to start.
ReplyDelete