“To replace the electricity lost from shutting down nuclear plants, we need to conserve more.”
Aileen Mioko Smith is the executive director of the Kyoto-based NGO Green Action, a prominent pro-sustainable energy group in Japan. Fortune’s Bill Powell, who has been covering the Fukushima disaster from Tokyo, asked for her take on what should happen to energy policy in Japan going forward.
I think all the nuclear plants should be shut down, but I understand that’s not practical, given that Japan gets 30% of its electricity from them. So the first thing is to shut down the most dangerous sites, starting with the Hamaoka nuclear plant southwest of Tokyo. It sits in the Tokai fault zone, an area that geologists fear will create a huge earthquake in Tokyo. The second thing is to shut down all old reactors as quickly as possible and not build Japan’s eight planned new reactors.
To replace the electricity lost from shutting down nuclear plants, we need to conserve more. After the price shocks on oil in the 1970s, Japan responded very quickly by becoming more energy-efficient. That’s what needs to happen again. Then we need to transfer the subsidies that go to the nuclear industry — subsidies that are paid by both ratepayers and taxpayers — to renewables. Right now the law in Japan strangles renewable investment. The good news is that renewables don’t take as long to build as nuclear. We need to get on with it.
What’s next for nuclear power? Six experts weigh in:
- Stewart Brand, author, Whole Earth Catalog
- Michael Brune, executive director, Sierra Club
- David Crane, CEO, NRG Energy
- Aileen Mioko Smith, executive director, Green Action
- Nathan Myhrvold, founder, Intellectual Ventures
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author, The Black Swan
