Statement of Protest against the Government Decision on the Seventh Strategic Energy Plan
21 February 2025
Consumers Union of Japan (CUJ)
On 18 February 2025, the Japanese government approved its Seventh Strategic Energy Plan, which sets forth a return to a policy of promoting nuclear power generation.
The Sixth Strategic Plan for 2021 states that an important theme is to show the path of energy policy toward achieving carbon neutrality in 2050, and that renewable energy will be positioned as the main source of power and raised to 36-38% in the power source composition. Also, nuclear power will be reduced as much as possible, in line with the policy since 2014.
However, in the Seventh Strategy Plan, this phrase has been deleted, and the FY2040 power source composition forecast calls for the utilization of approximately 20% nuclear power plants. This justifies the resumption of nuclear power plant operations, which have been aggressively pursued during this period. It also further promotes the rebuilding and development of next-generation innovative reactors. A record number of 41,421 comments were received in the one-month public comment period that began at the end of last year, many of which were negative toward a return to the use of nuclear power plants.
The 2011 TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident completely destroyed the so-called “safety myth” and also revealed that the accident was a “man-made disaster” caused by TEPCO management’s prior knowledge of the tsunami hazard and yet neglecting to address it.
After the Fukushima nuclear accident, the nuclear power plants that supplied nearly 30% of the nation’s electricity needs were completely shut down, but the absolute capacity of the facilities was sufficient and the demand for electricity was never interrupted.
The Three Mile Island accident, the Chernobyl accident, and the Fukushima Daiichi accident have all led to a common understanding around the world that nuclear power plants cannot coexist, especially in the earthquake-prone country of Japan.
The time has come for modern society, which has globalized in pursuit of economic growth based on the idea of supreme productivity, to clearly realize that the earth is finite. It is necessary to fundamentally review the mass-production, mass-consumption, and mass-disposal society itself. However, the new plan proposes the expansion of nuclear power plants on the assumption that the demand for electric power will increase due to the spread of artificial intelligence (AI) and other factors.
Now is the time for all of us to seek a way of living that is within our means based on a new paradigm, without placing economic growth as the highest priority.
In Japan, a power shift is spreading through various local initiatives. Through the power of local communities, the shift away from nuclear power and toward natural energy is steadily progressing in Japan, albeit belatedly.
Consumers Union of Japan (CUJ) strongly protests the government decision on the Seventh Strategic Energy Plan, which promotes a return to a policy of promoting nuclear power generation, and demands that it be rescinded.
Japanese text here
More background information in English from CNIC here
Quote: “The fuel for nuclear power is uranium. Currently, uranium is obtained from conventional uranium mines, but the number of mines producing uranium at low cost in particular has been decreasing year by year (the amount of verified uranium reserves with an excavation cost of 40 US$ or less per ton declined from 2.05 million tons in 2001 to 770,000 tons in 2021). We therefore estimated the future uranium situation, given confirmed reserves of 7.92 million tons as of 2021, if this declaration to triple nuclear power is implemented (assumptions being that total installed capacity of 393 GW, annual uranium consumption of 63,000 tons, installed capacity tripling by 2050, during which growth is linear and second-order uranium supplies such as MOX are provided, based on World Atomic Energy Association data). The results showed conventional uranium running out in the 2070s.”