All the world’s nuclear power plants generate electricity by splitting atoms in a process known as nuclear fission. But now, Japan is taking a leading role in developing production of electricity by means of nuclear fusion, the process that powers stars and the Sun.
In this nuclear reaction, atomic nuclei collide at very high speed and join to form a new type of atomic nucleus, emitting vast amounts of heat and energy.
The Japanese utility that supplies electricity to seven prefectures on Japan’s main island of Honshu has officially withdrew its plan to build a new nuclear power plant near the site of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Tohoku Electric Power Company said that it will cancel the construction of the Namie-Odaka plant in view of strong local opposition.
Announced in 1968, the plant was to be built about 10 kilometers (six miles) north of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant belonging to Tokyo Electric Power Company.
At Fukushima Daiichi, hydrogen explosions and nuclear fuel meltdowns followed the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami that shut down power to the water pumps that cooled the nuclear fuel rods.
Tohoku already has two nuclear power stations – one in Miyagi Prefecture and the other in Aomori Prefecture. But they remain shut down after the Fukushima disaster as do all Japan’s other 50+ nuclear power plants, except for two near Osaka.
Scientists have been working to harness nuclear fusion as a next-generation energy source.
Japanese and European scientists have began assembling an advanced nuclear fusion testing facility northeast of Tokyo in Naka, Ibaraki Prefecture. The site is on Japan’s Pacific coast 143 kilometers (89 miles) south of Fukushima Daiichi.
Some 500 Japanese and European researchers are expected to take part in nuclear fusion experiments there.
Japan’s JT-60SA nuclear fusion testing facility is scheduled for completion in 2018.
ENS
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