The Japanese group Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will develop a new nuclear reactor with special safety features together with four regional energy suppliers.

The announcement by the industrial group on Thursday illustrates the strategic turnaround that Japan has initiated under the impression of the sharply rising energy prices in terms of nuclear energy.

Patrick Welter

Correspondent for business and politics in Japan based in Tokyo.

  • Follow I follow

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced in the summer that the country wanted to build nuclear reactors again in addition to expanding renewable energies, also as a low-carbon answer to global warming.

Eleven years after the triple meltdown in the reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, the government made it clear for the first time that the country is again relying on a higher share of nuclear power in its energy supply.

Japan's energy policy is contrary to Germany's exit from nuclear energy.

In the years after the accident in Fukushima, the government in Tokyo avoided a clear statement and at times argued that the share of nuclear power should decrease.

According to information from the business newspaper “Nikkei”, the new type of reactor should be ready for use in the mid-1930s.

Essentially, it is a further development of the pressurized water reactors that are already being used by the regional energy suppliers in Kansai, Shikoku, Kyushu and Hokkaido.

The new reactor type is designed for 0.6 million to 1.2 million kilowatts of electricity.

The key safety feature is that with an improved control rod mechanism, the nuclear chain reaction can be stopped and ramped up significantly faster than previous models.

As an underground reactor with reinforced protective walls, the new type should be particularly safe from terrorist attacks or plane crashes.

Mitsubishi Heavy also promises better technology to catch molten fuel in the event of a meltdown.

The fact that the molten fuel in the damaged reactors in Fukushima Daiichi was able to spread unhindered is one of the greatest difficulties for the demolition of the reactors there, which will take decades.

The reactor is not the only new development Mitsubishi Heavy is planning.

The group is also working on smaller and cheaper reactors with an output of 0.3 million kilowatts.

Gas-cooled high-temperature reactors are designed to help produce hydrogen.

The company is also planning microreactors, which would be 4 by 3 meters in size and would be trucked in and installed underground.

Japan, which is poor in raw materials, sees nuclear energy as a necessary component of an energy mix in order to serve as a weather-independent energy reserve alongside wind and solar systems.

The country is currently aiming for a nuclear power share of 20 to 22 percent by 2030.

After tightened safety tests after 2011, ten reactors in Japan have been approved again and are in principle connected to the grid.