The Japanese nuclear power generation sector, which was shut down in 2011, in the aftermath of the Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster, is set to reopen on a limited scale with the expected recommissioning of two units in the next two to three months.

Japan Atomic Industrial Forum president Takuya Hattori said in Moscow on Monday that the two units were among the four that were recently approved for recommissioning and that several other units could be up and running again by the end of the year. He was speaking exclusively to Engineering News Online on the sidelines of Atomexpo 2015, a three-day nuclear energy conference that started on Monday and is being attended by about 1 600 delegates from 48 countries.

Before the Fukushima disaster, nuclear accounted for 30% of Japan’s electricity supply. Hattori said this technology’s contribution to the Asian country’s energy mix was expected to gradually increase from zero at present to between 20% and 22% by 2030.

He acknowledged that the sector’s coming back on stream would be slow, owing to a regulatory process that had become extremely stringent and lingering public negativity towards unclear energy. “More than 100 000 people were displaced from their homes as a result of the disaster and people will never forget about Fukushima,” said Hattori, adding that a recent survey indicated that 60% of the Japanese population were opposed to the reopening of the nuclear electricity generation sector.

However, he was optimistic that the sector would gradually become a significant energy source for the country once again, owing to nuclear’s price competitiveness and the fact that it did not exacerbate global warming.

Japan, which relies on imports for its power generation fuel, currently generates 90% of its electricity from gas, oil and coal, with hydro contributing 9% and wind and solar 2% between them.

Earlier, World Nuclear Association director-general Agneta Rising had said the future of nuclear energy looked bright, with 67 plants currently under construction, many of them in Asia and the Middle East.

The global nuclear build push was in response to growing energy demand in a world where many countries were striving to limit the emission of climate-changing greenhouse gases.

Martin Zhuwakinyu is in Moscow as a guest of Rosatom.