No Nukes in Japan

This is a good New York Times article on how the Japanese are scared of using nuclear power since last year's Fukushima Daiichi disaster, to the point where all 54 of their reactors have, or will soon, go offline.  The Japanese have avoided shortages up to this point due to a crash program, but this has left them more reliant on fossil fuels that are mostly imported from other countries.  Articles like this reinforce my opinion that in a post-oil economy, nuclear power is probably our most viable option if we want to maintain any kind of semblance to the lives that we currently live. 

The clincher comes at the end, where the mayor of a Japanese town, after demanding new guidelines and safety measures from the government before the plants should reopen, then admits that the reactors will have to be restarted anyway in the event of economic slowdown or energy shortages.  A fisherman who was also interviewed acknowledges that no one wants to go back to a world without TV's or smartphones.