http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-18/japan-s-idled-reactors-weak-yen-drive-deficit-on-energy.html
Few are as eager as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to see Japan’s idled nuclear reactors brought back into operation. Since the country flicked off the switch to its nuclear energy program a little more than a year ago, expensive energy imports, particularly of liquefied natural gas, have worsened trade deficits. That’s placed an extra burden on an economy that contracted at an annualized rate of 7.1 percent in the second quarter, its worst showing since 2009, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its Sept. 22 issue.
Abe’s push to restore Japan’s 48 functioning reactors faces deep opposition from a public that can’t forget the radiation leaks from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi reactor complex following an earthquake and tsunami in 2011. Revelations of the regulatory lapses that led to the leaks galvanized local governments to keep Japan’s other reactors idle after they were shut down for scheduled maintenance. By September 2013 the country was without nuclear power.
Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority, a new agency charged with overseeing the industry, is moving glacially to restart the idled reactors. So far, it has only deemed Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai reactor in the southwest ready. Yuji Nishiyama, an analyst with JPMorgan Securities Japan, says he thinks only half of the 48 reactors will come back, and that might take until 2018. “I don’t have confidence about the timing,” he says.
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