The Japanese government now wants to relaunch nuclear energy for good, notably considering building new generation reactors, to reduce the extreme dependence of the archipelago on imported fossil fuels and its significant CO2 emissions.

This politically sensitive project is also a challenge in terms of human resources, while the number of students in nuclear sciences in Japan fell by more than 25% between 2011 and 2021, according to figures from the Ministry of Education.

Very variable from one year to the next and concerning only a few hundred students, these data are to be put into perspective, believes Kota Kawai, president of a Japanese network of young nuclear professionals.

"Even after the Fukushima accident, students were interested in how to overcome these great difficulties. Many were interested in the field of dismantling (of reactors, editor's note)", according to this nuclear safety researcher.

"The problem is that there are few people (in Japan) who know how to build new nuclear power plants" now, warns Mr. Kawai, interviewed at the end of November by AFP on the sidelines of the International Youth Nuclear Congress (IYNC).

This forum for exchanges between students and young nuclear professionals from all over the world was organized for the first time in Japan and - as a symbol - in the department of Fukushima, in Koriyama (north-east).

In Japanese culture, it is not fashionable to put yourself forward and express your “pride”, whatever your profession, recalls Mr. Kawai, co-president of the IYNC of Koriyama.

But as young nuclear professionals, "we must be motivated, say what we think, what we do".

Tepco, pariah group

Chisato, 28, studied chemistry and radiobiology.

After working from 2017 to 2020 at Tepco, the operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi power plant, she now holds a position abroad.

The Fukushima disaster was "the starting point" of her interest in nuclear power when she was still a high school student, she told AFP, preferring to keep her last name quiet.

Protesters hold anti-nuclear signs in Tokyo.

© Richard A. Brooks / AFP

"After the accident, there was so much confusing information in the media, for example about the level of radiation in Fukushima (...). It generated a lot of anxiety among people. So I wanted to know the whole story, the facts, in a neutral way".

This disaster did not claim any immediate victims, but led to the evacuation of some 100,000 inhabitants of the surrounding area.

In 2018, the Japanese state recognized a death due to radiation, an employee of the nuclear power plant.

Chisato also remembers her "astonishment" during her job interview at Tepco when she was asked if her parents approved of her joining the company, whose reputation sank after the disaster.

She then learned that people about to be recruited by Tepco sometimes withdrew their application at the last moment after being dissuaded by their families.

TEPCO executives bow in forgiveness at a 2011 press conference in Tokyo after the Fukushima nuclear accident.

© YOSHIKAZU TSUNO / AFP/Archives

Her own parents were also worried about her going to work at Fukushima Daiichi.

"I explained to them that it was not going to affect my health," says Chisato.

"Very uncertain"

"My parents and my friends never criticized my professional choice," said Hikari, also 28, a nuclear researcher with a large Japanese industrial conglomerate and who also preferred to remain anonymous.

But Hikari had to fight "for years" with her anti-nuclear husband: "He ended up respecting my decision because he understood how committed I was to my work".

Employees of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in one of its reactors in full protective gear.

© Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP/Archives

Kyohei Yoshinaga, 30, a researcher in electrical and energy technologies at the Japanese think tank Mitsubishi Research Institute, entered university the same year of the Fukushima disaster.

The new ambitions of the Japanese government leave him doubtful for the moment.

"The government now wants to use nuclear power as much as possible, because there is a need now" with soaring electricity prices, he notes.

"But the situation can change very quickly. If we only have short-term prospects, it remains very uncertain."

© 2022 AFP