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   Minoru Saba (minorusaba@toad.social)'s status on Wednesday, 18-Dec-2024 09:42:32 JST Minoru Saba

   "...nuclear power will account for around 20 percent of [Japan's] total energy output in fiscal 2040..."
   assuming
   "...around 30 reactors, or the majority of existing ones, will be restarted"
   "Since electricity demand is expected to rise further due to the prevalence of artificial intelligence and data centers, [etc], govt aims to meet high demand by easing requirements for rebuilding nuclear plants"
   https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241217/p2g/00m/0na/030000c
   🔸Seems to be a lot of wannabe Dr. Strangeloves in #Japan😡

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     Minoru Saba (minorusaba@toad.social)'s status on Wednesday, 18-Dec-2024 10:19:18 JST Minoru Saba

     in reply to

     Japan imports most of its fossil fuels, still depending on Russia for 9% of LNG needs (Australia supplies about 40%). For uranium, Japan looks to Australia, Canada & Kazakhstan.
     OTOH a 2022 paper from ANU claimed "Japan has 14 times more solar and offshore wind resources than needed to supply 100% renewable electricity".
     So unspoken reasons for Japan's leaders needing excuses for expanding nuclear🤔
     https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0196890422000954
     #Japan #nuclear #deterrence

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     Minoru Saba (minorusaba@toad.social)'s status on Wednesday, 18-Dec-2024 10:44:56 JST Minoru Saba

     in reply to

     Furthermore Japan hasn't got a safe, long-term nuclear waste disposal site or is likely to without redefining "safety":

     "...the statement about 300 scientists signed, including a number of former chairmen of the Geological Society of Japan, said there was no place in Japan where such waste could be kept safe for the 100,000 years or so needed for the radiation to dissipate"
     https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15044716
     #Japan #nuclear

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     Minoru Saba (minorusaba@toad.social)'s status on Wednesday, 18-Dec-2024 11:05:48 JST Minoru Saba

     in reply to

     The excuse of increasing nuclear power to meet "AI" needs is a red herring since it's in "AI" developers' interest to reduce power consumption:
     i.e. "...many hardware designers see an opportunity to remake the basic blueprint of computer chips to make them more energy efficient [to enable] AI to work more efficiently in data centres [and also] directly on personal devices"
     https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03408-z

     🔸#Japan used to be good at making do with less resources...because it had to!🤔