Japan’s Prime Minister Seeks Public Support for Nuclear Energy

[NickB79]

2. Japan took 46GW of nuclear offline in less than a year

Right now, Germany is the world leader with 25 GW of solar online, and it took them the better part of 3 decades to get there. Any fast-track program to replace the reactors with solar and wind will still take a decade or more to build out. You also have to expand transmission lines to carry the power of, say, mountainside or offshore wind turbines to the grid. The costs will be staggering, especially for a country already reeling under restrained economic growth due to power cuts and a $100-million/DAY tab for imported coal and natural gas to run formerly mothballed powerplants to keep the lights on.

That's not an argument against doing it. It MUST be done, costs be damned, or the country will not survive long-term. However, it won't be easy, it won't be cheap, and it sure as hell won't be fast. Sooner or later (probably sooner if Japan has a hot summer), they will have to restart at least some of their reactors, public sentiment be damned.