Japan is extending the lifespan of its nuclear power plants

Parliament enacted legislation on Wednesday that will no longer limit service life to 60 years, allowing for potentially unlimited service lives. The country, which is poor in raw materials, wants to reduce its dependence on oil and gas imports and achieve its climate protection goals: CO2 emissions are to be reduced to zero by 2050.

After the Fukushima disaster in 2011, Japan shut down all of the country’s nuclear power plants and introduced significantly tightened safety standards. Of Japan’s 33 currently operational reactors, only 10 have been reconnected to the grid.

Meanwhile, in Japan, a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is conducting one final check before the country begins dumping large volumes of treated radioactive water from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea, a plan opposed by local fishermen and neighboring countries.