Japan will abandon nuclear power within the next three decades under new government policy on the post-Fukushima energy mix, a newspaper reported yesterday.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's administration will soon declare its intention to permanently shut down reactors by some time in the 2030s, the Mainichi newspaper reported, citing unnamed government sources.
The move would bring resource-poor Japan into line with Germany, which has said it will wean itself off nuclear power by 2022, and comes as regular vocal protests against nuclear power continue.
The government "will formally decide at an energy and environment meeting this weekend" to stop the use of nuclear, the paper said.
Tokyo has worked to hammer out a new energy policy in the wake of last year's crisis, when reactors at Fukushima were swamped by the tsunami, sparking meltdowns that spread radiation over a large area.
In the months that followed, Japan's entire stable of reactors were shut down for routine safety checks, with only two of them ever having been restarted, and those in spite of often vocal public protest.