Japan to restart nuclear reactors

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From Reuters:

Japan’s nuclear regulator gave the go-ahead on Wednesday for the restart of a nuclear power station, the first step to reopening an industry that was mothballed after the Fukushima disaster and which may involve the definitive closure of a dozen old plants.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) said Kyushu Electric Power’s two-reactor Sendai plant in southwestern Japan could restart, although that still needs the approval of local authorities.

…The government is pressing regulators to make the tough decision on whether to decommission the oldest of the country’s 48 reactors, which face higher safety hurdles than the rest.

Weeding out reactors that are 40 years old or more may help win public trust in the rest of the industry.

…The government has been pressing for the restart of reactors that receive safety approval from the NRA to reduce Japan’s reliance on expensive imported fuel.

That is, Australian LNG. A third of reactors will likely get switched back on over time and the LNG grow accordingly.

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About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.