Although Japan is on the edge of technologies advancements, their reserved society has caused it to remain deeply mired in the two worst forms of energy on the planet fossil fuels (second largest importer on the planet) and nuclear energy. Not only are these forms of energy not the cheapest they have far reaching consequences for everyone on the planet. Fukushima is a case in point.
The Ongoing Nuclear Nightmare
The immediate damage to Japan, from the Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown, was a loss of 30,000sq. kilometres of land to nuclear contamination. Trying to downplay the disaster the Japanese government changed the acceptable level of contamination so that only 600 square kilometres were officially classified as contaminated. Allowing their own citizens to live in areas they know to be contaminated will have far-reaching consequences the heath of people living in those areas. In economic terms, the estimate is a loss of 500 billion with 160,000 people being official displaced, from the permanently lost zone of the country. There are no figures on the costs to the real danger zone nor the displacement that occurred when citizens realised the danger the government was placing them in and more away.
The Japanese government can not, however, legislate away the fact that radioactive caesium has entered the ecosystem in at least a 320-mile radius. This radioactive material is now in the water, soil, plants and animals. As it moves up the food chain it fans out from this area and also becomes more concentrated and mixes in with the food consumed by citizens in a much greater radius. At the moment, these levels are accumulating in people's kidneys, small intestine, pancreas, spleen and liver as well as the heart and endocrine system. In children, this process is accelerated.
However, this is just the tip of the iceberg as the plant continues to leak massive amounts of radiation into groundwater that flows into the sea and the plant leaks directly into the sea, contaminating the sea itself. In the first fifteen months after the meltdown, the plant itself pumped 734,000 curies of radioactive caesium into the Pacific. Fifty-six percent of all fish off the coast of Japan has been found to be contaminated, shutting down a huge food source, as fishing is banned. Meanwhile, ten tonnes of seawater a day is poured on the reactors that have burned through the floor of the building. Needless to say, this water is not properly contained and continues to gush into the Pacific.
The consequence to the rest of the world is not benign, as the radiation spreads out throughout the Pacific Ocean. This radiation becomes concentrated as it moves up the seafood chain raising levels of radiation in the larger species throughout the ocean. Although some scientists say the level in the water is below safety thresholds,
other scientists are reporting high mammal mortality levels on the North American Coast and mammals with open sores and furless patches. Levels of radiation contamination on this west coast are expected to double, but even now some species of fish are almost 100% contaminated while most others are partially contaminated.
The Fossil Fuel Disaster
As Japan leans more heavily on fossil fuels it is helping to accelerate climate change, as most people know a limit of two degrees has been set, which has since been questioned my scientists who say even one a half degrees might not be safe. What seems to not get into the discussion is burning just one-fifth of our known reserves would take the planet over the two degrees mark. One can not help but wonder why any fossil fuel company would be allowed to expand or continue exploration.
Already we are in trouble as the effects of climate change are adversely damaging the ecosystems in the oceans and altering the weather to create enormous superstorms. To say nothing of the increased flooding of low-lying populated areas around the planet, displacing huge populations and destroying farm land.
Legislating a Shift to Renewables?
This month Japan rewrote its energy rules, putting the consumer in charge of choosing their source of energy. This could mean a choice to buy from the lowest bidder, which will not be nuclear or fossil fuel but rather cheaper renewal energies. This now allows for small towns to build a grid out of solar, wind and geothermal energy. As the old centralised power plants own the transmission lines and can set the tariffs for using them, this could present problems for local towns who want to feed their excess production back into the grid. The legislation may have some other significant downsides as it does not specifically encourage renewable energies nor discourage dangerous forms of energy production.
Japan's Cheapest Greenest Alternative
Japan sits on top of the Pacific ring of fire and has the capacity to produce enormous amounts of geothermal electricity using the old fashion flash power plants. Not only do they have the resources, they also produce the turbines used in many of the geothermal plants around the world, an impressive sixty-seven percent of the turbines. If they were to deploy binary geothermal plants, instead of flash plants, there is almost nowhere in Japan they could not establish a large geothermal plant. Japa is familiar with the technology, as they already operate eighteen geothermal plants, and in 2011, they conducted a survey their geothermal capacity. As is the case with most of these surveys they are very conservative and tend to underestimate by a significant order of magnitude the real potential, for this source of energy. I am not sure why this is but it could be due to the unfamiliarity with the many advances in binary systems that can operate at temperatures as low as 57 degrees, and also combine the plant with other forms of renewable energy to boost power output.
In Japan, they are very cautious about how close plants come to their tourist centres that are often centred around hot springs. Given the small footprint of plants and modern diagonal drilling technologies, these worries are not necessary.
