Six years after the Fukushima disaster prompted an electricity crisis in Japan and sent tremors throughout the world’s nuclear power sector, Japan is determined to continue its reliance on nuclear for nearly a fifth of its power needs in the long term.

Nuclear will make up 20% to 22% of Japan’s power mix by 2030, under a long-term plan issued in 2015, Hirohide Hirai, the director general of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), told attendees at CERAweek by IHS Markit, which is taking place in Houston this week.

On March 11, 2011, nearly a day after the 3-minute, 9.0-magnitude Great Tohoku Earthquake struck northeastern Japan—and unleashed a tsunami that killed 20,000 people—the world learned that Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s (TEPCO’s) Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear plants were in peril after rising waters inundated and disabled offsite power supplies.

All of Japan’s nuclear power plants were shut down for safety checks after the disaster. Six years later, only three of 45 operable reactors have come online: Kyushu Electric’s Sendai 1 and 2 (restarted in 2015), and Shikoku Electric Power Co.’s…

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