Japan:

Geothermal Faces Pushback In Japan (WBUR)

The Matsukawa geothermal power plant, Japan’s first geothermal plant built in 1966, is seen at Hachimantai city in Iwate prefecture, northern Japan on August 4, 2011. (Yoshikazu Tsuno/Getty Images)

The Japanese are worried that drilling into these geothermal reservoirs will disrupt their beloved natural hot springs.

But GRC member Masaho Adachi of the Japan Geothermal Association swears that drilling into the deep geothermal reservoirs wouldn’t damage the shallower hot spring sources. Through an interpreter he tells me that such fears are founded on a misunderstanding of geology.

“The onsen people, we need to explain well, because they have no idea about underground,” Adachi says. “They use the hot springs but they don’t know geology or underground condition… But we in the geothermal industry, we start with an understanding of underground conditions. So we can realize geothermal power plants in Japan without any interference to hot springs.”

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