For Japan, shutting down nuclear plants brings surge in oil,

[scottf200]

Was reading aggregate news this morning and stumbled on this article.

For Japan, shutting down nuclear plants brings surge in oil, gas imports

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/for-japan-shutting-down-nuclear-plants-brings-surge-in-oil-gas-imports/2012/04/07/gIQAGwPx1S_story.html?tid=pm_world_pop" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Even before last year’s nuclear crisis, a triple meltdown triggered by an earthquake and tsunami, Tokyo ranked as the world’s largest importer of LNG and third-largest importer of crude oil. But nuclear reactors powered one-third of the country’s needs, and the country planned for that share to increase to 50 percent.

Thirteen months later, only one of Japan’s 54 reactors is operating; some were shuttered because of the disaster, and most of the others have come offline for scheduled maintenance. Despite attempts by politicians in Tokyo to persuade them to do so, provincial governors and local communities won’t allow them to restart.

In February, nuclear plants produced just 3 percent of the total power generated in Japan. By next month, when the sole remaining reactor, on the northern island of Hokkaido, is due to shut down, Japan will be nuclear-free just as temperatures begin to climb.

In recent months, to fill the void, Japan’s imports of LNG, crude oil and heavy fuel oil have increased by 15 to 30 percent, compared with comparable periods before the disaster. A recent Deutsche Bank report calculated that Japan’s power generation costs in February were $1.9 billion higher than during a typical month in which nuclear plants were in operation.
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