Nuclear power plants have been shut down throughout Japan since the occurrence of the worse case meltdown scenario at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Start up of any of the others is not in the works, other than the starting up again just of Reactors No.3 and No.4 at the Oi Nuclear Power in Hukui Prefecture. As a result, the demand for gas at nuclear power plants has come to an end.

Nuclear power plants use heat obtained from the nuclear fission of uranium to boil the water in boilers to create steam to operate turbines. The same process after driving turbines is employed at thermal power plants. Hydrogen for cooling the turbines is likewise used for nuclear power plant as well as thermal power plant, but it is not required when the turbines are not working. Furnaces use boiling water also use hydrogen to reduce the oxygen which is generated by hydrolysis based on the great heat in the coolant water. In addition, nitrogen is used for purging, helium for leak testing, and gas for analysis. It seems that most are not used when plants are shut down.

As for gases used at thermal plants, nitrogen is used for purging, hydrogen for cooling the turbine, and ammonia for desulfurization. However, the fact is that compared to when dealing with radio active materials, the amount of gas used here is smaller. Just by virtue of the fact that the use of gas is determined by national policy, there are still a large number of gray areas.