Japan's Nuclear Restarts to Face Hurdles from Waste Management and Licensing, says GlobalData

­Japan is making concerted efforts to bring its nuclear reactors back online, driven by a push to secure low-carbon baseload electricity, strengthen energy independence amid the escalating Israel–Iran conflict, and temper rising electricity costs. But alongside these gains, significant challenges around waste management, public acceptance, and protracted approval processes threaten to slow progress, according to GlobalData, a leading intelligence and productivity platform.

GlobalData’s latest report, “Japan Power Market Trends and Analysis by Capacity, Generation, Transmission, Distribution, Regulations, Key Players and Forecast to 2035,” reveals that nuclear generation recovered sharply to 101.0TWh in 2025 and is projected to rise to 123.3TWh by 2035. Capacity, however, remains mostly flat through 2029, with modest gains beginning in 2030-31. Meanwhile, public hesitancy and legal ambiguity around reactor restarts, along with a backlog in licensing and safety approvals, remain key obstacles.

Attaurrahman Ojindaram Saibasan, Power Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The technical comeback is real—existing nuclear power plants from the pre-2011 fleet are being requalified, and safety upgrades are underway. Nonetheless, community mistrust, slow radiation safety reviews, and unresolved decisions on waste storage remain significant barriers to what should otherwise be swift progress.”

Japan’s response to the Israel–Iran conflict has sharpened the urgency behind its nuclear restart strategy. Disruption to oil and natural gas shipping lanes, notably through the Strait of Hormuz, has exposed vulnerabilities in global fuel supply chains. With such instability threatening fuel imports, nuclear power provides a more stable, domestically secure source of baseload electricity. 

Rising fossil fuel prices, worsened by uncertainty in Middle Eastern energy markets, have pushed electricity costs upward for households and industries, making nuclear power’s comparatively predictable costs more attractive.  

However, debates over interim storage and locating permanent high-level nuclear waste sites continue, with social resistance and lengthy approval cycles threatening to stretch timelines. Licensing processes covering everything from seismic resilience and upgrades for severe accident mitigation to hydrogen explosion prevention and inspections of aging equipment often extend over several years and involve multiple overlapping regulatory bodies. Public acceptance remains fragile with concerns over radiation, transparency in safety upgrades, and the siting of waste all factoring heavily into local resistance.

Saibasan continues: “What is needed now are nationally endorsed roadmaps for high-level waste management; transparent programs for reactor safety upgrades; permitting processes that proceed in steps and include community dialogue; and strengthened support for advanced reactor designs such as SMRs to distribute risk.”

Saibasan concludes: “If these measures are executed well, Japan could reach its goal of around 20–22% nuclear generation share by 2030, stabilizing the energy mix, lowering emissions, and reducing its reliance on imported fuels. If not, nuclear will struggle to hit its mark, and thermal power will have to shoulder the burden at greater financial, environmental, and operational cost, especially amid volatile global energy markets and disrupted supply routes.”