TEPCO restarted Reactor No. 6 today at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, the world’s largest by installed capacity (8.2 GW when fully operational with its seven units).
It was brought back online after nearly 15 years of idleness, following the 2011 Fukushima disaster that triggered a nationwide shutdown of all 54 reactors.
Since that decision, Japan has restarted 15 of the reactors, with another 11 planned to be brought back in the next few years.
In stark contrast, Germany completed its full nuclear phase-out (Atomausstieg) on April 15, 2023, when the last three reactors were permanently shut down.
Germany could still have brought a couple a few reactors online until late 2024 or early 2025 before the dismantling process passed a point of no return.
However, there was no political will to do so and the dismantling process was instead continued to make sure that no future pro-nuclear government could decide to restart them.
In the same year that Germany shut down its 3 final reactors, a decision was taken in Japan to accelerate the nuclear reboot.
The former PM Fumio Kishida came to the conclusion that it was time to reverse earlier caution and approved updates to utilize nuclear “to the maximum extent possible” for energy security.
His key decisions from 2023 included extending reactor lifespans (potentially beyond 60 years), restarting more units and preparing the construction of new next-generation reactors for the next decade.
While Japan aims to soon have around 30% of its energy needs covered by nuclear power, Germany will remain at 0% for decades to come due to Merkel’s decision to completely eliminate nuclear power from Germany’s energy mix.
Political experts say that looking back at her decisions, future historians will conclude that Merkel was guilty of at least 3 grave political mistake that had devastating effects on Germany and all of Europe for decades come.