Japan's cabinet to unveil new energy policy

Nuclear reactor

flickr-peretzp

The new Japanese cabinet, led by PM Shinzo Abe, is set to unveil a new energy policy, which will reverse the previous administration's plans to eliminate nuclear power in the country by 2040.

"We need to reconsider the previous administration's policy that aimed to make zero nuclear power operation possible during the 2030s," Japan's Trade and Industry Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said.

He added that he is ready to allow the operation of the nuclear power plants to resume "if they are confirmed safe." Power stations could thus come online only upon authorisation of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, which was established in September 2012 to ensure nuclear safety in the country following the 2011 nuclear crisis at Fukushima.

On May 5, 2012, Japan turned off its last operating nuclear reactor located in the north of the country. The move saw the end of the Japanese government's reaction to the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which left the nation without electricity generated by nuclear reactors for the first time since 1966.