Japan should consider restarting nuclear plants.

Thanks to Dan Yurman and Margaret Harding for the tip on this developing story.

As of today, there are increasing reports out of Japan that various industries and private companies are feeling a serious pinch due to the shortage of electric power - a shortage that is going largely unreported in the West.

Click here to see a great roundup by Bloomberg of the plants now shut down.

Click here for an interesting pre-paywall story tease at Petroleum Economist.

Daily Yomiuri has a good piece on the struggle and issues as well.

It is this author's opinion that the anti-nuclear sway in Japan has become seriously and irresponsibly overwhelming. The plain fact of the matter is that none of these IAEA or otherwise developed "stress tests" are going to do anything to reassure the public, overall, about nuclear safety. What will do something is to successfully get plants back on line generating electricity without incident.

It my opinion that the best course of action that Japan could take would be to develop a two-tiered recovery plan regarding nuclear safety. Those nuclear stations which are considered in very high tsunami risk areas are the only ones that should remain shut down for an extended period until tsunami protection is in place. Japan's nuclear plants have sustained serious earthquakes for decades with no troubles until now of any note; thus, the plants that are not in tsunami threatened areas should be given a thorough but brief inspection by the Japanese authorities - without waiting for the development of the new agency - and restarted before Japan's economy worsens seriously due to lack of industrial production.

At what point in the past would Japanese manufacturers have considered outsourcing production, or moving their manufacturing offshore? The answer is that they would never have - it is an essential part of Japan's economy that the vast majority of its products are manufactured in Japan. Only now, with a serious energy shortage, is this considered. The effect on Japan's economic health is shown all too well in the articles I've linked above.

The time to hide behind fear and uncertainty is over. The Japanese should stand on the previous forty years of safe nuclear operation and restart those plants which can meet immediate safety standards as soon as it is possible to do so. To do otherwise is to threaten the nation's economic foundation.

9:55 AM Eastern Wednesday February 22, 2012
ATOMIC POWER REVIEW

ADDED NOTE: Perhaps Japan should look at the example India is setting; India plans to have roughly 63,000 MW of nuclear generating capacity installed in twenty years' time. This would be a good place for Japanese companies to move their factories in order to take advantage of more reliable energy and (probably) less expensive labor. Other nations are not standing still waiting for stress tests. Click here for a full story on India's nuclear build program.