Japan to Increase Geothermal Power Funding to Substitute Nuclear Energy

Japan will allocate more funds to develop geothermal power in order to boost the use of alternative energy, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday.

The country seeks to diversify its energy sources following the shutdown of all of its 48 nuclear energy reactors in March 2011 after the meltdown of Fukushima nuclear plant. Until 2011, nuclear plants provided about 30 percent of the country's energy, according to the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan.

"Japan must harness the possibilities that geothermal energy offers us," Abe told journalists as quoted by the local Mainichi Shimbun newspaper on Monday.

The prime minister made the announcement during his visit to the town of Yanaizu, located in Fukushima Prefecture that was worst affected by the nuclear power plant meltdown.

In April, Japanese government issued a plan, according to which the ratio for renewable energy is expected to double by 2030 in comparison with the 2010 figures, reaching the total of 22-24 percent.

In March 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant suffered a meltdown of three of its six reactors due to flooding caused by a tsunami that was caused a 9.0-magnitude earthquake.

Radioactive material leaked into the sea, soil and atmosphere, and hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated from the region.

Source: Sputnik News