Speaker
Dr
Masakazu Yoshioka
(KEK)
Description
Japan is eager to host the ILC, the International Linear Collider Project. One of the issues in realizing such a large accelerator facility in Japan would be assuring a satisfactory supply of electrical power. As is well known, after the Tohoku - Pacific Ocean Earthquake in March 11, 2011, most Japanese nuclear power plants have been off-line. Prior to that, up to 30% of the demand on the electrical grid was supplied by nuclear power. While there is no prospect for resumption of reactor operations, a rapid increase of the generation capacity of fossil fuel plants has allowed Japanese industries and domestic life to survive without major disruption, thought it has worsened the trade imbalance. In any case, we must be realistic in preparing an energy management plan for our Research Institutes where large-scale energy consumers are. Already for many years laboratories such as TRISTAN, KEKB and J-PARC have scheduled their operations so that they could contract to draw minimal power during the summer cooling season which causes the peak demand on the system. However, it is still crucial to continue systematic efforts to (1) improve the overall design in order to get better “luminosity/unit power consumption” and to (2) improve the power efficiency of all accelerator components. For a third attack on the problem, energy recovery from the cooling water system should be studied, in spite of its relatively-low energy density. In my talk I will summarize the current Japanese electrical power condition and an energy management plan for the Japanese Research Institutes and finally our efforts in advancing large scale Research Institutes for their spin-off benefits to the whole of Japanese civil society.
