Nuclear

Japan opened several solar energy parks on Sunday as its new feed-in tariff (FiT) law came into force, requiring the country’s 10 regional electricity companies to purchase renewable energy at a fixed prices in a push for alternatives to nuclear power. Ahead of the start of its new FiT regime the Japanese government held a press conference on Friday to present three long-term energy policy options for public debate. It aims to select one of the three in August, officially shifting the country away from its previous goal of raising the share of power generated by nuclear energy to at least 50 percent by 2030.

The Japanese government has given its approval to two key measures effecting the country’s short-term and long-term energy supply: a set of incentives for renewable energy that could unleash billions of dollars in clean-energy investment, and the restarting of two of the country’s 50 idled nuclear power reactors. By taking these decisions so close together the government is no doubt hoping to offset at least some of the public criticism surrounding the much-anticipated nuclear restarts which Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has, for some time, been saying is an economic necessity.

China National Nuclear Power Co Ltd, the nation's leading nuclear energy developer, is planning an A-share initial public offering (IPO) to fund the development of its nuclear power projects, Xinhua reported yesterday

China's State Council has given approval in principle to a nuclear power safety plan for the five-year period ending 2015 and long-term targets for 2020 according to a report posted in a government website on Friday. It did not specify when approvals for new plants would resume or mention capacity goals.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, keen to restart idled nuclear reactors to avoid a summer power crunch, said on Wednesday it was necessary to start those whose safety has been confirmed, adding he was winning understanding from local authorities, Reuters reported yesterday.

Japan may look to generating 15 percent of its electricity needs from nuclear power, a minister said Friday, as the country seeks to rebalance its energy supply after the Fukushima disaster.

A report in Bloomberg says China’s State Council is likely to approve revised safety and development plans for the country’s nuclear industry by the end of June. According to Xu Yuming, the vice secretary general of the China Nuclear Energy Association, the plan – which was originally expected by the end of last year – was earlier rejected and amendments are being made to some “minor” details. China suspended new nuclear projects after last year’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan crippled the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant and prompted a global review of atomic energy plants.

As widely anticipated, the Japanese government yesterday announced it would inject 1 trillion yen (about USD12.5 billion) to bail out the troubled Tokyo Electric Power Co  (TEPCO) which was left reeling after last year’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant catastrophe.

Japan will shut down its last nuclear reactor shortly before midnight on Saturday, the first time since July 1966 that the country has been without atomic energy feeding into the national grid.