The Yomiuri Shimbun | December 26, 2018

The organizing committee of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games is planning to use the next-genera- tion energy of hydrogen fuel to light the flames of the cauldrons and torch relay, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. If realized, the 2020 Games would be the first Olympics to use the alternative energy source for this purpose.

Hydrogen produced at a state-of-the-art plant under construction in Fukushima Prefecture, which was devastated by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, will be used, the sources said. The Athletes’ Village also will use hydrogen fuel as a power source.

The organizing committee intends to showcase Japan’s advanced technology with hydrogen and reconstruction as themes during the event.

According to sources connected to the organizing committee, the committee is discussing using the hydrogen fuel for the torch at the start of the relay in Fukushima Prefecture...snip

... Currently in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, the national New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), major industrial gas company Iwatani Corp. and other entities are building the hydrogen production plant that also will make use of solar power, making it one of the largest facilities of its kind in the world. The aim is to start operations at the plant before the Games.

By using hydrogen fuel from Fukushima Prefecture, the committee intends to spread the news to the global community about the region’s recovery since the 2011 disaster.

At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, propane gas was used for the cauldron, making it a symbol of the “kitchen revolution” in which gas cooking ranges spread in Japan in place of kamado hearths.

“We want to achieve a second energy revolution through the Olympics,” said a senior official of the Tokyo organizing committee...more: http://www.the-japan-news.com/news/article/0005444199

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