No staff and no equipment ready after over a decade of nuclear denial:
Japan's decision to reignite its nuclear power industry is facing serious setbacks: 11 years of prohibition has led to a shortage of engineers, a lack of students training to fill vacant positions and a dearth of domestic nuclear manufacturing capability.
The Japan Electrical Manufacturers' Association claims the number of "skilled engineers responsible for manufacturing nuclear equipment" has declined by 45 percent since the government banned nuclear power projects and shut existing reactors in response to the Fukushima meltdown in 2011.
[...] According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Japan got around a third of its power from nuclear energy prior to the Fukushima meltdown. Japan never cut nuclear from its power generation entirely, and prior to the moratorium lift was getting around 7.5 percent of its electricity from nuclear sources that weren't shuttered.
In July of last year, Japan restarted several nuclear plants to stave off energy uncertainty thanks to interrupted gas flows from Russia, which the country has relied on since decommissioning its nuclear facilities.
[...] Japanese officials previously planned to phase out nuclear power entirely by 2030, but now hopes nearly a quarter of the country's power will come from nuclear sources by the end of the 2020s.
According to NPR, that goal might be out of reach because it would require construction of an additional 17 reactors by 2030 – a tough goal under the best of circumstances.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 12, @09:24PM (3 children)
>11 years of prohibition has led to a shortage of engineers, a lack of students training to fill vacant positions and a dearth of domestic nuclear manufacturing capability.
This is a big reason why NASA limped along through the early 2000s doing much less that its people (and more numerous, its contractors) were capable of. Shut down the program altogether and people will retire, retrain, and basically abandon the industry in droves.
Hell, 1990 straight out of school I turned down a job with the US NRC because the double whammy of TMI and Chernobyl put some glowy green writing on the wall...
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 12, @10:12PM (2 children)
I agree. I wanted to work for NASA in the 90s, and had an "in" with a research group due to my graduate work, but the Contract On America hiring freezes made that impossible. They had people there on indefinite postdocs and fellowships waiting for the rare and elusive billet to open. It ultimately leads to an age gap in the employee pool and a loss of expertise and institutional knowledge. I fear we're going to have more of that moronic behavior out of the House in the next few years and hope it doesn't cripple too many institutions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13, @01:14AM (1 child)
Universities are already hollowing out - they used to do things with real grown ups doing real grown up work, but now there's just a sea of students learning hard life lessons under a corporate cattle driver who forces them to work harder and tells them they're not good enough and that this is a SERIOUS institution.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday January 14, @01:00AM
When I did my Masters Thesis you had two choices: know what you wanted to do and do that, or ask for direction and work on your advisor's grant project(s) with a high chance of delayed graduation because the grant needs more work to bring in more money and nobody else was foolish enough to sign up to work on it with you.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 5, Insightful) by oumuamua on Friday January 13, @01:06AM
Sounds like excuses, just hire some consultants from
the USAha just joking ...Russiaoh right the sanctions ...Chinaforgot about the new cold war...FRANCE!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Friday January 13, @05:38PM
Note that Civ and other strategy games in the same ilk got it wrong.
Science/Research is not something you "bank". Science is something you invest in, and continue to invest in. Stop the investment and "Science" regresses.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday January 13, @08:00PM
Japan has the technical prowess and the organizational ability to do anything it wants to. If they decide they're going to have an all-nuclear grid tomorrow, you'd be foolish to bet against them.
And, if they have all the power they need, then they can get the resources they need. I don't have the link handy anymore, but they have been working on deep sea mining; having the ability to access resources across 70% of the Earth's surface will supply all they'll ever need.
Washington DC delenda est.