Japan nuclear industry nears shutdown

TOKYO, March 9 (UPI) -- The nuclear energy industry that once supplied a third of Japan's electricity has nearly shut down amid safety concerns and public opposition, officials say.

Nearly a year after an earthquake and tsunami caused the Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown all but two of Japan's 54 commercial nuclear reactors have gone off-line, with no indication when they'll restart, and the last operating reactor is scheduled to go off-line next month, The New York Times reported.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda says he supports restarting the plants as soon as possible but phasing out nuclear power over several decades in a country that was once a world leader in use of atomic energy. And Noda said he will not allow reactors to restart without the backing of local community leaders.

The dramatic move away from nuclear energy provides an indication of how much attitudes about safety have shifted in Japan since the magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami.

"March 11 has shaken Japan to the root of its postwar identity," said Takeo Kikkawa, an economist at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. "We were the country that suffered Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but then we showed we had the superior technology and technocratic expertise to safely tame this awesome power for peaceful economic progress. Nuclear accidents were things that happened in other countries."

The government has asked plant operators to conduct computer simulations to show how reactors would withstand a major natural disaster but many local leaders say the tests aren't enough to reassure them.

Japan has avoided energy shortages partly through a conservation program, but with more power generated by conventional plants high energy prices have been blamed for the country's first annual trade deficit in more than 30 years.