Japan's auto manufacturers may have to slow down this summer
 

Japanese citizens have lost confidence in the nuclear honesty of their leaders.

Steve Clemons - THEATLANTIC - March 30, 2012

Massachusetts Rep Edward Markey wants to restrict LNG exports --Ed.

Nobuo Tanaka's hair is on fire. The immediate past executive director of the International Energy Agency is on a mission attempting to alert officials in the United States, Japan, Europe, China and elsewhere that post-Fukushima Japan may be approaching an energy death spiral.

Tanaka's argument is mathematical at its core. He argues that if Japan does not find a way to 'turn on' its now shuttered nuclear energy reactors, not only will Japan's already sluggish economic condition be crushed with much larger oil and gas imports from Russia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East -- but because of the costs and risk uncertainty -- Japan's powerful manufacturing base may begin pulling out of the world's third largest economy. In a morning meeting with me last week, Nobuo Tanaka said that if Japan didn't get its domestic energy production back on line soon, Japan would experience serious 'deindustrialization.'

On top of the gloom about nuclear energy supply doldrums in Japan, the hard consequences of tensions with Iran, there is a third area of concern Tanaka has: the weather. He said that if Japan has a very hot summer -- which some are projecting -- Japan will run another 10% short of supplies on top of the shortages it already projects.

But even all this is not the end of the squeeze.

Japan's other partial energy option is the importation of liquified natural gas (LNG) -- which it imports from Malaysia, Brunei, Qatar, UAE, Indonesia and Australia. Japan needs to further boost imports if it can but prices for LNG are surging. The combined energy deficit Japan is facing would require a net increase, according to Tanaka, of LNG and oil that would run about $40 billion a year -- wiping out completely Japan's trade surpluses and more.

In meetings hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies this past week, Nobuo Tanaka made an appeal for the US to export some of its cheap LNG supply to Japan. The price of LNG in Japan is currently four times the price in the United States.

However, House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Edward Markey has over the last several months been agitating in speeches and correspondence with Energy Secretary for the US to restrict LNG exports -- thus keeping prices low in the United States and leaving key strategic allies like Japan vulnerable to surging global LNG prices and to the geostrategic flirtations from Russia. Tanaka said that with Russia, about which the US has increasing concerns about its mercantilist global energy behavior, Japan may be forced to build new grid and pipeline infrastructure with Russia given the cold shoulder the US is thus far showing Japan.

... [Read More]

Re: Japan's auto manufacturers may have to slow down this summer
 

Japan's nuclear industry is in serious crisis, maybe a death spiral, though perhaps the threat of deindustrialization will prompt the Japanese public to tolerate continued licensing of at least the more modern reactors. And I don't think the prospects for a massive influx of new LNG supplies are good either. Here in the northwest a number of new LNG export facilities have been proposed over the last 5 years or so. As with the more recent coal export proposals, these are being bitterly fought on both environmental and safety grounds, and mostly won't be happening anytime soon.

I do wonder about the potential for deindustrialization. I hope Japan's automakers have been reacting to both current and predicted exchange rates, and gotten busy making aggressive plans to build more cars HERE in North America.

Re: Japan's auto manufacturers may have to slow down this summer
 

http://www.lse.co.uk/FinanceNews.asp...amper_restarts

By Linda Sieg and Risa Maeda
TOKYO, April 5 (Reuters) - Japan's government is rushing to try to restart two nuclear reactors, idled after the Fukushima crisis, by next month out of what experts say is a fear that surviving a total shutdown would make it hard to convince the public that atomic energy is vital.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and three cabinet ministers are to meet for a third time on Friday to discuss the possible restarts of the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co's Ohi plant in Fukui, western Japan - a region dubbed the 'nuclear arcade' for the string of atomic plants that dot its coast.

Trade minister Yukio Edano, who holds the energy portfolio, could travel to Fukui as early as Sunday to seek local approval for the restarts, Japanese media said.

If approved, the restarts would be the first since a huge earthquake and tsunami triggered the radiation crisis at Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima plant a year ago, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate.

Concern about a power crunch when electricity demand peaks in the summer has been set against public fears about safety since Fukushima, the world's worst nuclear accident in 25 years.

Nuclear power, long advertised as safe and cheap, provided almost 30 percent of Japan's electricity before the crisis but now all but one of Japan's 54 reactors are off-line, mainly for maintenance. The last reactor will shut down on May 5.

'They want to avoid setting a precedent of the country operating without nuclear power because it will create a huge barrier in terms of restarts,' said Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University's Tokyo campus.

'People will question why we need it,' he said.

The government is crafting a new energy mix formula, with options for atomic power ranging from zero to 35 percent of electricity by 2030 against an earlier target of more than half.

Whether the reactor restarts can go ahead before the last reactor shuts down, however, remains in doubt.

Edano has said he wants to gain understanding from communities near the reactors, including those such as Shiga and Kyoto prefectures which are not hosts to atomic plants but are close enough to be at risk of radiation from a big accident.

Re: Japan's auto manufacturers may have to slow down this summer
 

I am still stunned by the fact the Japs didn't have diesel generators and fuel supplies in rooms 50 feet off the ground for coolong emergencies. What a-holes. More primo Jap engineering.

Re: Japan's auto manufacturers may have to slow down this summer
 

There is something weird about the safety culture of Japanese nukes.. probably cultural.

Re: Japan's auto manufacturers may have to slow down this summer
 

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/japan-confi...174058080.html

"Japan on Friday confirmed it was safe to restart two offline nuclear reactors in the wake of last year's earthquake and tsunami disaster as the country faces a summer of power shortages.

Only one of Japan's 54 units -- in northernmost Hokkaido -- is in operation, but it is scheduled to be shut down for maintenance work in May. Restarting the two reactors at the Oi nuclear power plant in western Japan will mean the country is not entirely without nuclear power.

Industry Minister Yukio Edano said inspectors had "finally confirmed" the safety of the two Oi reactors but the country was still facing a summer of "very severe power shortages".

The government still needs to gain approval from regional authorities around the plant for the reactors to be restarted amid persistent public distrust over the safety of nuclear power."

Re: Japan's auto manufacturers may have to slow down this summer
 

Should this hate speech be reported?

Re: Japan's auto manufacturers may have to slow down this summer
 

The Prius is primo jap engineering

Re: Japan's auto manufacturers may have to slow down this summer
 

+2!

Re: Japan's auto manufacturers may have to slow down this summer
 

a news report:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120423x2.html

Monday, April 23, 2012

Fukushima air to stay radioactive in 2022

FUKUSHIMA — A decade from now, airborne radiation levels in some parts of Fukushima Prefecture are still expected to be dangerous at above 50 millisieverts a year, a government report says.

The report, which contains projections through March 2032, was presented by trade minister Yukio Edano Sunday to leaders of Futaba, one of the towns that host the crippled Fukushima No. 1 power plant.

The report includes radiation forecasts for 2012 to 2014, and for 2017, 2022 and 2032, based on the results of monitoring in November last year. It was compiled to help municipalities draw up recovery and repopulation programs for the nuclear disaster.

Re: Japan's auto manufacturers may have to slow down this summer
 

meanwhile in Germany:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...bdew-says.html

Utilities Plan $79 Billion of Power Plants in Germany, BDEW Says

By Stefan Nicola - Apr 23, 2012

Utilities and investors plan to spend 60 billion euros ($79 billion) to build and modernize power plants in Germany as the country closes its nuclear reactors over the coming decade, the BDEW utility lobby said.

The 84 projects, of which 69 are at least in the permitting stages and scheduled to start operating by 2020, have a combined capacity of 42,056 megawatts, the BDEW said in an e-mailed statement today. They include 23 sea-based wind farms, 29 gas- fired stations, 17 coal generators and 10 hydro-power pump stations, it said.

Re: Japan's auto manufacturers may have to slow down this summer
 

They still want to restart two reactors.. good luck with that!

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8570GO20120608

Japan PM says two reactors must restart for "survival of society"

(Reuters) - Japan's prime minister said on Friday that two idled nuclear reactors in western Japan must be restarted to protect jobs and ensure the "survival of society", risking a voter backlash given safety fears more than a year after the Fukushima crisis.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda sought to soothe those worries at a news conference just hours after the former president of Fukushima plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co testified in front of a panel appointed by parliament to probe the disaster.

Noda's decision to restart the two reactors, expected to be confirmed at a meeting with key ministers, will ease worries about power shortages among firms in the region, including struggling electronics giants Panasonic Corp and Sharp Corp.

"Cheap and stable electricity is vital. If all the reactors that previously provided 30 percent of Japan's electricity supply are halted, or kept idle, Japanese society cannot survive," Noda said, pointing to the possibility that more companies would shift output offshore and jobs would be lost.

"It is my decision that Ohi reactors No.3 and No.4 should be restarted to protect the people's livelihoods."

Re: Japan's auto manufacturers may have to slow down this summer
 

meanwhile, NG is set to get more expensive in the UK:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8H501U20120611

Tepco to buy 1 mll tonnes of LNG a year from Qatar

(Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power Co said on Monday that it has signed a contract with Qatar Liquefied Gas Company to purchase 1 million tonnes of liquiefied natural gas (LNG) annually from August.