14 DAY TRIAL // Mr. Akihiro Sawa, Japan's leading policy analyst, has recently declared himself in favor of the development of nuclear power technologies, even after the devastating effects of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident.
Sawa stated that, in his opinion, Japan should “maintain and improve its nuclear power technologies” . His statement is rather controversial nowadays, when many officials, organizations and Japanese individuals seem to be against further development of strategies which will increase the importance of nuclear power.
It appears that a great deal of the population remembers the Fukushima Daiichi tragic event and considers it a dangerous precedent. They are emotionally persuaded by the idea of putting an end to the exploitation of nuclear energy.
For this segment of population, the future development of nuclear power plants represents a delicate subject. There is also another category which is aware of the advantages Japan might benefit from while expanding this field of activity.
In such critical times, most of the experts agreed upon the fact that the Japanese government must come up with realistic policy options, which should generate rational debates,while leaving aside the emotional load which surrounds this topic.
Mr. Akihiro Sawa declared that Japan should continue offering its support to this industry which nowadays deals with the expansion of nuclear power technologies.
Instead of looking into the past and blaming the power plants for their activity, a much more productive strategy would be to increase the level of safety measures in the case of already-functioning nuclear power plants.
Officials can prove that they have learned a great deal about safety after Fukushima Daiichi tragic event, without stopping the evolution of an industry which brings millions of dollars to the national budget every year.
In the near future, it is likely that usage of nuclear power will spread in many countries all across the globe.
These nations will then be able to develop nuclear power technologies and it might turn out to be useful for them to be able to count on Japan's previous experience and support in dealing with potential crisis situations such as the Fukushima accident.
This way, Japan could contribute to nuclear safety by passing on the technological/operational lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi tragedy, to companies eager to make profit on the market of nuclear power.
Even though nowadays reopening the files of nuclear power activity might be considered taboo by a large segment of individuals and organizations, turning their backs on the potential benefits that nuclear power might bring them doesn't seem like such a good strategy to most of the Japanese officials.