SeminarThursday 14 March 2013
6:00pm – 7:30pm
Two Years after Fukushima: What Are the Real Costs of Nuclear Energy?
Drinks reception from 8:00pm
13/14 Cornwall Terrace, Outer Circle (entrance facing Regent's Park), London NW1 4QP
Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
Two years on from the 3/11 earthquake and nuclear disaster, what lessons have been learned? Professor Kenichi Oshima of Ritsumeikan University is one of Japan’s most prominent commentators on nuclear energy. His negative views on the industry have found willing audiences following the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in March 2011, and his book The Costs of Nuclear Power – an Argument in Favour of Switching Energy Sources won the Osaragi Jirō Critics’ Prize in 2012. He was appointed to the Japanese government’s Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy in September 2011, and is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at Sussex University, where he is researching Germany’s ongoing experience in switching from nuclear power towards renewables such as wind and solar power.
Avoiding the emotional tone that characterises much of the debate about nuclear power, Professor Oshima focuses on the industry’s economics. His cost-benefit analyses suggest that, far from being cheap, nuclear power is more expensive than Japan’s other main options. He argues that Japan’s electric power companies have understated some costs, such as the costs of reprocessing spent fuel, and have imposed others on local communities. He also argues that while there are costs associated with decommissioning nuclear power stations, these are outweighed by the economic benefits.
About the contributors
Professor Kenichi Oshima
Professor Kenichi Oshima is a Professor of Environmental Economics and Energy Policy in the Department of International Relations at Ritsumeikan University and he is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the Science and Technology Policy Research (SPRU) at the University of Sussex. Completing his studies in 2007, he graduated with a Master’s degree and a PhD in Economics from Hitotsubashi University. Since March 2011, he has been an appointed member of, or consultant to, many bodies advising on energy policy in Japan from local to national level, including for Osaka city, Shizuoka city and the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy. His publications include: ‘Comparing market based renewable energy regimes: the cases of the UK and Japan,’ The International Journal of Green Energy, (4; 2007) and chapters in The State of the Environment in Asia 2005/06 and 2002/03, (Japan Environmental Council, 2005, 2002). He published Nuclear Power: It’s Not Worth it- The Real Costs as Seen by the Japanese Public (Toyo Keizai Inc, Tokyo) in 2012 and in the same year he was awarded the prestigious Osaragi Jirō Critics’ Prize for his book The Costs of Nuclear Power – an Argument in Favour of Switching Energy Sources (Iwanami Shinsho, Tokyo, 2012).
Professor John Loughhead (Discussant)
Professor John Loughhead (Discussant) is Executive Director of the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). He is a graduate in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College, London. His professional career has been predominantly in industrial research and development for the electronics and electrical power industries. He was Corporate Vice-President of Technology and Intellectual Property at Alstom’s head office in Paris. For several years he has been extensively involved in national and European public sector technology programmes, as a member of various advisory committees and chair of policy reviews in the area of future energy systems. He was previously a member of the EPSRC Council and is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow and Past-President (2008) of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, amongst others. He is Honorary Professor of Cardiff University, Honorary Fellow of Queen Mary University of London, and a Freeman of the City of London.