The reactors were shut down in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster

Dec 16, 2013 13:58 GMT  ·  By

This past Friday, a government panel in Japan urged that the country restart its nuclear reactors and, by the looks of it, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is more than willing to follow this piece of advice.

As previously reported, high officials in Japan decided to pull the plug on the country's nuclear reactors in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster in March 2011.

At that time, said facility was hit by both an earthquake and a tsunami, and suffered a meltdown.

Needless to say, people in Japan lost their trust in nuclear power, and most of them still believe that this energy source should not be part of the country's energy mix.

Hence, when Japanese high officials first announced plans to get at least some nuclear reactors back online, several protests were organized across the country.

However, the government panel, headed by Akio Mimura, i.e. honorary chairman of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp, Japan's largest steel maker and one of the country's heaviest electricity users, believes that Japan needs to once again rely on nuclear power.

The goal of this move would be to cut energy costs and curb fossil fuels imports.

“Nuclear energy is an important and fundamental base energy source that will support the stability of energy demand and supply,” the government panel wrote in a report on the matter at hand, as cited by Oil Price.

The panel recommends that, in order to avoid or at least limit the number of future anti-nuclear protests organized in Japan, high officials make public whatever safety rules reactors must abide by before they are given the green light to reopen.

Furthermore, the panel suggested that people be informed about the financial benefits that reopening the nuclear reactors were bound to bring about.

Interestingly enough, the news that Japan is seriously considering having part of its energy demand once again met by nuclear power comes shortly after a group of climate scientists said that, all this considered, this energy source could help the world put a leash on climate change and global warming.