14 DAY TRIAL // All major news outlets have confirmed that Japan has shut down its last operating nuclear reactor over the weekend. Today, May 7, represents the first time in decades when the Asian nation no longer utilizes electricity derived from nuclear fission.
Saturday evening, at 11:03 pm local time, the No. 3 reactor at the Tomari Nuclear Power Plant, in Hokkaido, was shut down for scheduled maintenance. This was the last reactor still producing power, and officials have thus far not authorized the restart of any of the 50 nuclear facilities they control.
Environmentalists, a huge portion of the general public, various industry, lobbyists and politicians have been arguing about whether or not to use electrical power produced from this source. Thus far, it would appear that those opposing nuclear power are winning.
The closure comes 14 months after the devastating magnitude 9 earthquake that struck the northwestern coasts of Japan, triggering a devastating tsunami that ravaged Japan. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was heavily affected, producing one of the worst nuclear accidents in history.
Even though the installation was outfitted with numerous safety features and redundancy systems, the earthquake and tsunami struck in such a succession that everything failed. Back-up generators went off line, and four reactors were critically damaged.
People got very scared when news about the magnitude of the devastation broke out, and this is mainly why thousands took to the streets of Tokyo on Saturday, in order to celebrate the shutting down of Japan's last functioning reactor.
This shutdown came as a hit to the Asian nation's energy budget, seeing how more than 30 percent of its power was generated from nuclear fission. Now that all reactors are down, the government will have to use other sources of energy, CleanTechnica reports.
Japan is the world's third largest producer of electricity from nuclear reactors. Before March 2011, it had 54 such installation, but that number dropped to 50 after the operator of the Fukushima power plant, the Tokyo Electric Power Co., scrapped four of six reactors at the facility.
At this point, the 50 reactors in the country can produce a combined output of 46,148 megawatts. However, authorities are wary of allowing the utilities companies that run these installations the go-ahead to reopen the reactors. Nevertheless, the results of the public debate are far from established.