TOKYO -- Shikoku Electric Power's decision Friday to decommission an aging nuclear reactor casts further doubt on the government's goal of retaining nuclear energy as a significant power source.
The decision to retire the No. 1 reactor at the Ikata power plant in Ehime Prefecture means 12 of the 54 nuclear reactors that were operating prior to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011 will never come back online. The current government's energy policy expects nuclear to account for 20-22% of total power output in Japan in fiscal 2030.
