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Japan is the country with the greatest reason to be scared of nuclear power.
Think about it, they have the biggest nuclear trauma record in the world.
So far, they are the only country that has suffered a nuclear attack.
Namely, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
In fact, during the 50s, nuclear paranoia was big in Japan.
The most famous outcome of this is the movie Godzilla, the story of a gigantic radioactive
lizard that destroys cities.
Nonetheless, as the Japanese economy grew, Japan started building its own reactors.
A couple of decades later, they became the third biggest nuclear powerhouse, only surpassed
by America and France.
Yep, you heard that right.
While European countries like Germany were organizing all kinds of anti nuclear demonstrations,
Japan blindly trusted uranium.
But then, while the Japanese were charmed by atomic power, the unexpected happened.
Japan earthquake: Explosion at Fukushima nuclear plant
A powerful explosion has hit a nuclear power station in north-eastern Japan which was badly
damaged in Friday's devastating earthquake and tsunami.
Overnight, nuclear panic came back to Japan and the whole world.
And there was a good reason for it.
You see, during the Chernobyl accident in 1986, many people said “the problem isn’t
nuclear power--it’s the fact that Chernobyl didn’t follow the security protocols: you
know the soviets…”
But Japan is a wealthy country that takes extreme care with its security.
And despite all this care, Fukushima was still a disaster.
All of a sudden, Japan shut down all of their nuclear power plants.
They went from having 30% nuclear power in their energy mix to a tiny 3%.
So now you might assume that Japan is turning into an antinuclear country, right?
Well… in fact, the opposite is true!
20-22% share of nuclear power at core of updated energy policy
Exactly!
Nuclear power has come back to Japan!
In fact, not only Japan… as we said in previous videos, the whole Asian continent is going
through a nuclear revolution.
And when I say the whole continent, I mean it, from wealthy countries like Japan to poor
countries like Bangladesh.
And this is surprising if we take into account that nuclear reactors are far from cheap.
In this other video, we told you what’s going on in China, but today we’re going
to focus on what’s happening in the other two biggest Asian countries, Japan and India.
Because the question we want to address now is What about nuclear power appeals to Asians
so much?
And how has India, still a poorer country, become such a nuclear powerhouse?
Today, we are going to answer these questions but, before we do, as always, let’s take
a look back at the history.
THE NUCLEAR GIANT IS BACK Fukushima meant an immediate nuclear shutdown.
The Japanese wanted to minimize risk and stopped all their reactors basically overnight.
So you might be wondering…
Where have they gotten their energy since then?
I mean… how did they replace the energy input they used to get from nuclear power?
The answer is a complete ecological HARA KIRI.
Yes, you heard that right!
If you thought nuclear power was bad for the environment…
most of the alternatives are even worse.
Without uranium, Japan had to start using fossil fuels.
This had two consequences: electricity prices rose 20% because,suddenly, they had to buy
tons of liquefied natural gas.
The other consequence was that CO2 emissions skyrocketed.
In other words… if Godzilla happened to show up in Fukushima… he would have to wear
a mask.
And I know what you might be thinking…
Why don’t they use renewable sources?
What’s the problem with green energy?
Well… the problem is TIME.
If you wanna have solar panels and wind turbines, first you have to build them.
And Japan is far behind other countries in this matter.
In fact, it’s only NOW that they’re starting their green energy plan.
Their goal is to achieve 22% of their energy from renewable sources by 2030.
For a comparison, Europe plans to achieve the same in 2020.
Why?
Mainly because Europe started investing in these technologies way sooner.
But not only that!
Even if Japan wanted to speed up their green energy plan, they couldn’t.
One of their main problems is red tape.
Want to start a wind turbine park?
You need 5 years of paperwork.
This is three times longer than most industrialized countries.
And reducing red tape is almost impossible.
And let’s not forget to mention the classic problem with green energy.
You know, that it’s very expensive to store electricity using these methods.
For example, solar panels only give you energy during the day and the same goes for wind
turbines: you only get energy when it’s windy.
During a calm night, you still need other energy sources.
So, realistically, Japan only has two options for energy: they can keep importing expensive
gas and polluting like crazy or… they can go nuclear!
And… the answer seems like a no brainer for them…
Japan restarts five nuclear power reactors in 2018
In total, at the time we made this video, Japan has already restarted 9 nuclear reactors.
But it’s not only that they’re restarting at the capacity they previously had…
They want to build even more!
Process begins at Shimane nuclear plant to operate new reactor
You see, when you’re talking about nuclear power, there’s one important thing you must
understand: they produce energy on an ongoing basis.
This means, from the moment you start a reactor, you have the same amount of energy every day.
No more, no less…
This is why nuclear power is considered the base of an electric system.
Turning off a nuclear reactor is very expensive and it’s only done when there’s a real
risk of an accident.
This is why they’re always producing energy and… on top of that nuclear energy is where
we can add other energy sources like coal, gas or green energy.
These are energy sources that can be adjusted based on the energy demands on a particular
day.
Nonetheless, if we said green energy depends on the weather, coal or gas depends on market
prices, which fluctuate daily.
Nonetheless, you just need a little piece of uranium to have nuclear power, so price
fluctuations on this material don’t affect the cost that much.
This is the reason why Japan is going back to nuclear.
But not only Japan!
In South Korea, they are also mastering this form of energy.
While in North Korea they build nukes, their southern neighbours build reactors.
In total, they have 6.
And now you might wonder…
Who does build those nuclear power plants?
The truth is nuclear power is really complex and expensive.
And there are very few companies that master those technologies.
Do you remember those reactors built by Japan in the 60s?
Well, they were built by British and American companies.
For years, General Electric and Westinghouse dominated the market.
But, soon, TOSHIBA, HITACHI and MITSUBISHI started their own generation of models.
South Korea followed suit.
They started buying American, French and Canadian models.
But then, HYUNDAY, DOOSAN and KEPCO started manufacturing their own reactors.
Now South Korea is another nuclear powerhouse that exports technology all over the world.
UAE and South Korea celebrate completion of Barakah's first nuclear reactor
And now you might wonder…
OK but…
How much does a nuclear reactor cost?
To give you an idea, all the reactors that they want to build in the Arabian Peninsula
cost 20 billion dollars: this is the cost of an Olympic game.
Just to make a comparison, a fossil fuel plant that generates the same amount of energy costs
20 times less.
Of course, producing a Kilowatt of electricity with nuclear power is the cheapest way to
do so.
But the initial cost is only affordable to very rich economies.
So then…
How on earth is it possible that India and Bangladesh can have nuclear reactors?
Let’s have a look!
FROM GODZILLA TO GOGOLA Japan has Godzilla: India has GOGOLA.
If you didn’t know, after the commercial success of Godzilla, Bollywood created their
own exploitation version.
And this is the giant GOGOLA.
But enough with the movies!
When it came to energy, we had the same story.
If Japan had nuclear power plants, India wanted the same.
The problem?
American companies didn’t want to sell reactors to India!
Why?
Mainly because India has nukes.
Yes, you heard that right!
The country of Gandhi and non-violence is one of the few nations with nukes.
And their biggest enemy, Pakistan, also has them.
So there’s a real danger that one day they’ll want to use them.
In other words, America doesn’t want to help India go even more nuclear.
But that’s not even the most interesting part!
You see, unlike Japan and South Korea, India has its own uranium mines.
So, since America didn’t want to help them, they went to France and Russia.
This is why many of the nuclear reactors in India are built by ROSATOM, a Russian company.
But here’s the interesting part!
Indian reactors have something very special about them: they’re cheaper than anywhere
else.
Why?
Because they’re the only ones that use NATURAL URANIUM.
You see, most of the world’s reactors use ENRICHED URANIUM.
This kind of uranium can’t be used to manufacture bombs.
This is why buying enriched uranium is kind of easy while there are many restrictions
on getting natural uranium Basically, if you go to buy natural uranium,
they’ll tell you ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, cowboy!
Where are you going with that?
Do you want to make nukes, huh?
Leave this on the shelf and get outta here!’
But since India has its own uranium, they can do whatever they want with it.
This is why their natural uranium reactors are way cheaper.
And it explains news like this.
India plans tenfold uranium output growth India is currently building 7 nuclear reactors
but they plan to build 20 more.
Yes, you heard that right: 20 brand new nuclear reactors.
As I said, they’re using mainly Russian technology.
And… you know, since Rosatom was doing business in the region, they went to neighbouring Bangladesh
and made this.
Rosatom starts work on unit 2 of Bangladesh n-project
With this, Bangladesh will cover 20% of their energy demands with nuclear power.
And the same is happening with Pakistan.
Do you remember our previous video where we told you China is starting to create its own
nuclear technology?
Well, Pakistan is the first one buying from the Chinese.
In other words, nuclear power is not a rich country business anymore.
Asia is going crazy over it.
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