Contrary to the cynical takes so far here, this is both good news and logical.
Nuclear fission does come with risks. Japan already paid the price of one costly lesson with the Fukushima Daiichi incident. Whatever your thoughts are on the incident, one thing is clear; it was absolutely preventable, and they had the means to do so. There's ample evidence of that, it's not very controversial. Like most incidents, it was a combination of factors, including some preconditions (the inadequate sea wall, old reactor design), some operational mistakes, and a massive and still unlikely to repeat soon event. Humans are, of course, likely to continue to make mistakes, so the best way forward is of course to try to prevent similar scenarios from happening and invest in safer designs. Things that can be done.
Of course, many would argue now is the right time to instead invest in solar and wind power. I mean, sure. But Japan has multiple nuclear fission power plants currently not in operation mainly just because of fear after Fukushima Daiichi. I'm not a civil engineer of any sort, so I have no idea how plausible it is to implement comparable solar and wind capabilities along with battery storage to make it reliable, in Japan. I know Japan is larger than map projections would have you believe, but it still seems like there could be practical problems. Even if that really were the future, though, today the present is this: they already have fission plants that could be generating cleaner energy, and with rising gas prices, it doesn't seem all that illogical to me.
Nuclear fission does come with risks. Japan already paid the price of one costly lesson with the Fukushima Daiichi incident. Whatever your thoughts are on the incident, one thing is clear; it was absolutely preventable, and they had the means to do so. There's ample evidence of that, it's not very controversial. Like most incidents, it was a combination of factors, including some preconditions (the inadequate sea wall, old reactor design), some operational mistakes, and a massive and still unlikely to repeat soon event. Humans are, of course, likely to continue to make mistakes, so the best way forward is of course to try to prevent similar scenarios from happening and invest in safer designs. Things that can be done.
Of course, many would argue now is the right time to instead invest in solar and wind power. I mean, sure. But Japan has multiple nuclear fission power plants currently not in operation mainly just because of fear after Fukushima Daiichi. I'm not a civil engineer of any sort, so I have no idea how plausible it is to implement comparable solar and wind capabilities along with battery storage to make it reliable, in Japan. I know Japan is larger than map projections would have you believe, but it still seems like there could be practical problems. Even if that really were the future, though, today the present is this: they already have fission plants that could be generating cleaner energy, and with rising gas prices, it doesn't seem all that illogical to me.