社説：原発コスト 「安価神話」も崩壊した

専門用語：
renewable energy 再生可能エネルギー（＝自然エネルギー）
再生可能エネルギーは新聞社による英語よりの翻訳ですが、自然エネルギーというほうが分かりやすいのかもしれませんね。
（スラチャイ）

(Mainichi Japan) December 29, 2011
Editorial: Gov't should promote renewable energy as myth of nuclear power's cheapness shattered
社説：原発コスト　「安価神話」も崩壊した

"The cost of nuclear power generation is cheap" -- we have repeatedly heard such a line as part of the reasoning for promoting nuclear energy.
　「原発の発電コストは安い」。これまで原発推進のひとつの根拠として繰り返されてきた言葉である。

The myth of the cheapness of nuclear power generation collapsed following the catastrophe at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.
　東京電力福島第１原発の大事故を経て、この「安価神話」が崩れた。

A government panel set up in the wake of the nuclear disaster estimates that the cost of nuclear power generation now stands at a minimum of 8.9 yen per kilowatt hour -- 1.5 times higher than the figure presented by utilities and the government before the disaster.
　事故後、原発コストの見直しを進めてきた政府の「コスト等検証委員会」の試算によると原発の発電コストは最低でも１キロワット時当たり８．９円。これまで電力会社や政府が提示してきたコストの１．５倍となる。

If the costs for decontaminating areas affected by radioactive materials, decommissioning the damaged reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant and compensating for damages emanating from the nuclear crisis soar further, the cost of nuclear power generation would be even higher.
　放射性物質の除染や廃炉、損害の費用など今後の事故処理の費用がかさめば、さらにコストは増す。

Considering the fact that the costs of coal-fired power generation and liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fueled power generation stand at somewhere near 10 yen per kilowatt hour, respectively, the superiority that nuclear power generation had enjoyed in terms of "cost performance" can be said to have been shattered.
　石炭火力、液化天然ガス（ＬＮＧ）火力が１０円前後であることを思えば、原発のコストの優位性は大きく揺らいだといえる。

Even wind power generation and geothermal power generation could rival with nuclear power generation in terms of cost performance depending on conditions, while the cost of solar power generation is likely to become cheaper in 20 years time.
風力や地熱も条件がよければ原子力に対抗でき、太陽光も２０年後にはそれなりに安くなる可能性が示されている。

The government should take this opportunity to proceed with full-scale measures to invest in and promote renewable energy sources, which had previously been shunned for their "high costs."
　政府はこれをきっかけに、「コスト高」を理由に敬遠されてきた再生可能エネルギーへの投資と推進政策を本気になって進めるべきだ。

What makes the government panel's latest estimation significantly different from previous calculations is that the panel took into consideration the social costs emanating from nuclear power generation, such as accident risks, on top of the expenses for the construction, operation and maintenance of nuclear power plants as well as their fuel costs.
　今回の試算がこれまでと大きく違う点は、建設費や運転維持費、燃料費などに加え、事故リスクや二酸化炭素対応といった社会的コストも勘案した点だ。

In hindsight, it was a mistake that we failed to take into account accident risks involving nuclear plants.
考えてみれば、これまで事故リスクを度外視してきたことが間違いだった。

It shows that the myths of the safety and the cheapness of nuclear power generation were closely intertwined with each other.
「安全神話」と「安価神話」はセットになっていたことになる。

The government panel has also indicated that energy savings per household are tantamount to generating power and pointed to the potential of a dispersed power system, to which we should pay renewed attention.
　検証委は家庭の省エネは発電に等しいという考え方や分散型電源の潜在力も示している。

The panel's estimates should be indicating the feasibility of the government's policy of cutting down on nuclear power generation.
改めて注目したい。こうした試算を踏まえれば、今後原発を減らしていくという政府の「脱原発依存」の実現性が見えてくるはずだ。

In the meantime, we should take heed of the fact that the figures currently presented are highly uncertain. 　
現時点で示された数値は不確実性が高いことにも留意したい。

Experts were sharply divided in their opinions over how nuclear accident risks should be evaluated when they were discussing how they should calculate the latest estimates.
試算の過程では、原発事故のリスクをどう評価するかで、専門家の意見が大きく割れた。

While some experts projected that the odds of such a serious accident as the Fukushima disaster happening were once every 100,000 years, their opinions are way too different from ordinary people's feelings considering the fact that we have seen three major nuclear accidents across the globe -- Three Mile Island in the United States in 1979, Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union in 1986, and Fukushima in 2011 -- over the past several decades.
　今回のような深刻な事故が起きる確率を「１０万年に１回」と仮定する専門家もいたが、米スリーマイル島原発、旧ソ連のチェルノブイリ原発の事故に、今回の福島の事故を考えあわせると普通の人の感覚とかけ離れている。

It should be noted that the government panel has given minimum estimates because it excluded accident probabilities from their estimates for nuclear accident risk-related costs.
　検証委は今回、事故確率を含まない方法で事故リスク対応費をはじいたが、もっとも低い見積もりであることを忘れてはならない。

The panel has also indicated that the cost of the nuclear fuel cycle -- which the government describes as the core of Japan's nuclear energy policy -- is almost twice that of direct disposal.
　日本が原子力政策の要とする核燃料サイクルも直接処分に比べ約２倍高いという試算が示されている。

The nuclear fuel cycle program, albeit the large amount of money spent on it, should be reviewed from square one.
これまでつぎこんだ費用は大きいが、ゼロから考え直すべきだ。

The panel's estimates should be examined by people from various quarters in order for Japan to come up with the best mix of energy policies.
　今後は、こうした試算をさまざまな立場の人が検証しつつ、エネルギーのベストミックスを考えていく必要がある。

Those estimates should serve as the first step toward achieving such diverse energy policies.
試算をそのスタートとしたい。

毎日新聞　2011年12月26日　2時31分