The government on Saturday finally gave the go-ahead to Kansai
Electric Power Co.’s plan to restart the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors
at its Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture. The decision
ignores the crucial lesson from the accident at Tokyo Electric
Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant: Building and
operating nuclear power plants in this quake-prone country,
which could cause a catastrophe with irreparable damage, is
untenable as a policy. Regrettably the government made the
decision even without presenting a concrete road map to
eventually make Japan free from nuclear power. The decision this
time will dampen people’s efforts to save power. Economically it
will be sound for Japan to push green energy industry to create
new technologies and jobs and to disperse small-scale power
plants using renewable energy sources across the nation. It is
deplorable that although both the government and Kepco were
aware for a long time of the possibility that the areas serviced
by Kepco will face power shortag