Japan emissions rising after atomic crisis: report

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Agence France-Presse

$Kansai Electric Power Co's Ohi nuclear power plant (R-L) No.1, No. 2. No.3 and No.4 reactors are seen in Ohi, Fukui prefecture January 26, 2012. Japan's nuclear disaster has shaken trust in utilities and reminded residents in this rural, mountainous region the risks of radiation, but their heavy reliance on atomic plants for jobs and funds means speaking out remains a taboo. Nestled on the Wakasa Bay in central Japan, the town of Ohi -- lashed this week by a snowstorm that has blanketed much of northern Japan -- hosts four of the nuclear reactors that dot the coast of Fukui prefecture, known as the \"Atomic Arcade\" because it has more reactors than any other area in Japan.$

Kansai Electric Power Co's Ohi nuclear power plant (R-L) No.1, No. 2. No.3 and No.4 reactors are seen in Ohi, Fukui prefecture January 26, 2012. Japan's nuclear disaster has shaken trust in utilities and reminded residents in this rural, mountainous region the risks of radiation, but their heavy reliance on atomic plants for jobs and funds means speaking out remains a taboo. Nestled on the Wakasa Bay in central Japan, the town of Ohi -- lashed this week by a snowstorm that has blanketed much of northern Japan -- hosts four of the nuclear reactors that dot the coast of Fukui prefecture, known as the "Atomic Arcade" because it has more reactors than any other area in Japan.

Photographed by:
Issei Kato, REUTERS

TOKYO — Japanese manufacturer's greenhouse gas emissions are rising after the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, hurting the country's carbon reduction goals, a report said Sunday.

The trend will deal a blow to Japan's target of reducing emissions by six per cent from 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012 under the Kyoto Protocol, the Nikkei business daily reported.

Emissions by 399 leading manufacturers are projected to rise 0.2 per cent year-on-year to about 388 million tonnes in the year to March 2012, the second straight annual rise, according to a Nikkei survey.

Total estimated emissions for all industries, excluding the power and gas sectors, reached 442 million tonnes, the report said, nearly equal to emissions recorded in fiscal 2010.

Japan's economic activity shrank in the wake of the March 11 earthquake-tsunami disaster and record flooding in Thailand, which pounded the supply chains of manufacturers with operations in the country.

But the closing of Japan's nuclear power plants sent emissions upwards as manufacturers started running their own generators to secure additional power and supply electricity to utilities, the Nikkei said.

Emissions also rose amid a jump in resources needed to produce power through other means such as thermal plants, the daily added.

The problem could get worse since Japan's nuclear plants are expected to suspend operations by April, about a year after the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986, the report said.