Cafe Wall

Story and Photograph by Lehan Winifred Ramsay

Coming up in Japan: a dilemma. Since last year’s triple disaster in Japan the nuclear power stations have been suspending operations, one by one, for checking and maintenance. The last reactor is scheduled to be de-activated on May 5.

The dilemma is a little complicated. Many people say that this is a time that Japan really needs a “miracle recovery”, like the one that took place after World War II. But there are a lot of factors needed for this miracle recovery, and one of them is power. Since March last year, power has been a concern to the government. As the nuclear reactors shut down, companies are asked to reduce their power consumption. So instead of increasing production, in many cases they have had to reduce it.

A further problem is the looming increase in the price of electricity. Many companies are considering moving their manufacturing and production off-shore, and increases in electricity prices will strengthen the argument to do so. Aside from industry, there is concern that ordinary people will be affected by rising electricity prices and blackouts.

The government seems to be of the opinion that before the last nuclear power station suspends operation, it is important to start up one of the stations that has been inspected. But the public is currently divided over whether they want to do this. On the one hand, there is a great deal of concern about the safety of nuclear power plants. On the other, they are being warned that there may be widespread blackouts over the summer, and that the shutting down of the plants may contribute to further economic troubles. It seems that the government wants to prevent the anti-nuclear movement growing stronger.

The closure of all nuclear stations might make it harder to get the support to restart them. On the other hand, if there are numerous blackouts over the summer, that might cause support for nuclear power to resume to grow. The government also appears to be a little unsure of how to persuade the people.

It seems clear that the Central Government is committed to nuclear power. Not so the Municipal Governments, some of which are opposing efforts to get the plants restarted. Many local governments too are opposed.

Another problem is that the increased use of fossil fuels as an alternative to nuclear power has many problems. Increased cost, pollution, reliance on outside energy sources. There seem to be huge investments going into alternative sources and research. Nobody is really sure if a cheap and safe alternative can be found, and it is unclear as to whether a cheap and safe alternative is really being searched for. It may be that these efforts are aimed more at placating the public.

I feel a lot of sympathy for the Japanese people. This dilemma comes at a time when the country was already experiencing a drop in economic power, and started a serious conversation about what the future should be, which direction to take. It’s a discussion we all need to take, because once the babble about carbon, offsets, all those airy-fairy economic games stops, we still haven’t made any serious choices or serious decisions about how to stop the world from ending up on a junk-pile. People here are thinking.

Coming up in the beginning of May are the Golden Week holidays, when we will experience our first Nuclear Break.