All 54 of Japan's nuclear reactors may be shut by next April, adding more than $30 billion a year to the country's energy costs, if communities object to plant operating plans due to safety concerns, trade ministry officials said on Wednesday.
Since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which triggered a radiation crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant north of Tokyo, concern among local authorities has kept nuclear generators from restarting at least four reactors that had been expected to come online after routine maintenance and inspection.
Several more reactors have since shut for regular maintenance, slashing Japan's nuclear generating capacity to just 17,580 megawatts, or only 36 percent of its registered nuclear capacity. [ID:nL3E7GD1AW]
In May, Japan's average nuclear run rate fell to 40.9 percent, the lowest in at least a decade and well below 62.1 percens a year earlier. [ID:nL3E7H80K1]
Before the quake and tsunami, which forced the closure of three other power plants in addition to Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima Daiichi facility, nuclear power supplied about 30 percent of Japan's electricity.
NOTE: OK, this is the confirmation that I'd been waiting for. First saw article a week or so ago that all Nukes may close by April. Let's hope that it's true, and then that the rest of the world catches on, nothing is worth the risks of nukes.
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