IEEJ：April 2017○ｃIEEJ 2017
Special Bulletin
A Japanese Perspective on the International Energy Landscape (319)

April 14, 2017

Participating in 50th JAIF Annual Conference
Ken Koyama, PhD
Chief Economist, Managing Director
The Institute of Energy Economics, JapanOn April 11 and 12, the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum held its 50th annual conference at
the Tokyo International Forum. Under the keynote theme “Bridging the Past and Present toward theFuture,” a large number of Japanese and foreign nuclear energy policy and industry stakeholders at
the conference vigorously discussed roles, expectations and challenges for nuclear energy in the past,present and future in three sessions and a special session for young people following an opening
session in the morning of the first day.
In the opening session, JAIF Chairman Takashi Imai and Parliamentary Vice Economy,
Trade and Industry Minister Toshinao Nakagawa delivered keynote addresses, followed by speeches
by Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Satoru Katsuno,chairman of the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan, Jitsuro Terashima, chairman ofthe Japan Research Institute, and Daniel Lipman, vice president of the U.S. Nuclear Energy Institute.
From their respective viewpoints, these speakers pointed to roles and expectations for nuclear power
generation regarding the so-called 3E’s -- energy security, environmental protection measures
including climate change responses and economic efficiency (reducing power costs) -- in the pastand future. They also gave opinions on the significance of thorough safety enhancement based onreflections and lessons learned from the Fukushima accident.
In Session 2 titled “State of Fukushima and Efforts toward Restoration,” speeches,questions and answers were given on the present situation of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear PowerStation, initiatives and future challenges for decommissioning its reactors and handling waterpollution, the post-accident Fukushima restoration situation, and various constraints and challenges
seen from social, economic and cultural viewpoints. In Session 3 titled “Global Trends andExpectations of Japan” on the second day, reports were presented on the global nuclear power
generation trend and outlook and the up-to-date nuclear power generation situations in India, theCzech Republic, Mexico and South Africa. Vigorous discussions were made on the roles Japan couldplay based on reflections and lessons from the Fukushima accident. Including the special session foryoung people, the JAIF annual conference provided discussions on the future of nuclear energy froma comprehensive range of viewpoints.
I attended Session 1 on the first day as panelist along with former U.S. Deputy Energy
Secretary Daniel Poneman (chief executive officer of Centrus Energy Corp. at present) and Kunihiko
Miyake, research director of the Canon Institute for Global Studies. The session was titled “Roles of1

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Nuclear Energy -- Past, Present and Future,” linked directly to the keynote theme of the annualconference. Poneman and Miyake made interesting presentations from which I learned much.
Poneman’s presentation dealt with the history, present situation and future outlook ofJapan-U.S. cooperation in nuclear power generation. An impressive point of the presentation wasthat nuclear power generation cooperation between the key postwar allies has not necessarily beensmooth but has included twists and turns, occasionally facing difficulties that the Japanese and U.S.
governments and industries have jointly striven to overcome. Since the Fukushima accident, theJapanese and U.S. market environments for nuclear power generation have been commonly severe,though with different problems. The new U.S. administration’s nuclear policy is still uncertain. The
two countries also have various nuclear energy problems, including a business crisis at Japan’s
Toshiba Corp. and its U.S. affiliate Westinghouse Corp.’s filing for bankruptcy protection. The
presentation implied the significance of continuous Japan-U.S. cooperation in resolving problems fornuclear power generation in the two countries and the world.
Miyake presented views from a panoramic or macro perspective regarding theinternational situation, rather than any perspective specialized in nuclear energy. Its summary
follows: The universalism that had dominated the international situation from the end of World War
II through the 1990s has been replaced by particularism or unilateralism, under which exclusionary
nationalism rather than international cooperation is emphasized. Developments symbolizing such
trend include the birth of the Trump administration and the United Kingdom’s decision to exit fromthe European Union. The trend should be taken into account when future developments are analyzed.
In such world, survival is extremely important for individual countries and parties. Significant in thisrespect is how to secure stable energy supply. Important for securing stable energy supply are thediversification of energy supply sources and the stable supply of domestically produced energy.
From this viewpoint, the significance of nuclear energy should be reconsidered.
I made a presentation on nuclear energy’s roles based on three points -- (1) the gravity
center of the global energy market will shift to Asia, (2) Japan is expected to take a key position andplay key roles in Asia, and (3) the 3E’s challenges are important not only for Japan but also for Asia
as a whole. On the third point, particularly, I clarified nuclear energy’s possible contribution to thesimultaneous achievement of the 3E’s targets in Japan and Asia by providing quantitative differencesof 3E’s indicators such as the energy self-sufficiency rate, carbon dioxide emission reduction andelectricity costs in multiple nuclear power generation scenarios, based on an analysis in “Asia/WorldEnergy Outlook 2016” by the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan. In order for nuclear energy toplay the expected role, however, every country will have to thoroughly enhance nuclear safety,
establish transparent, independent nuclear safety regulations and develop and fortify overall nuclear
safety culture to secure the social acceptability of nuclear energy. Every country will also have to
make serious relevant efforts and promote international cooperation in securing the 3S’s (safety,security and safeguard) covering not only nuclear safety but also nuclear security and nuclear
non-proliferation.
The presentations, questions and answers in the session indicated that the Japanese and2

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foreign market environments for nuclear energy contain various complexities and uncertainties.
Nuclear and all other energy options have challenges to overcome. We must acknowledge that there
is no perfect energy source. Based on the acknowledgement, we must do our best to overcome
problems and challenges peculiar to various energy options, effectively utilize energy sources anddevelop the best energy mix. Through the conference, I felt anew that although there are manydifficult challenges, countries in the world will have to concentrate all wisdom to overcome thesechallenges.

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