Just a quick update tonight, a pointer to a post by ampontan regarding a couple of surveys recently conducted into nuclear power. The first survey from the Yomiuri Shimbun on April 4th was conducted between the 1st and 3rd of April 2011, and found that 46% supported continuing with the current level of nuclear power generation, 29% were for reducing, and 12% for the complete elimination of nuclear power. The other 13% were not described. The second survey from JNN for the TBS television station was released on the same day, and found the highest percentage (the exact figures were not available) thought that current nuclear power be maintained but safety procedures strengthened, and about 15% supported each of “stopping all generation for now while reviewing the situation” and “phasing out and using other means of power generation”.

I suspect the numbers in favour of nuclear power will rise this summer as the Tokyo area, which normally has 24 or so reactors available to supply the grid (with usually three or four in maintenance at any one time) will be down to just two, according to news I saw this morning, despite the summer months being peak demand to supply air conditioning.

I personally think that nuclear generation, especially in Japan, is an unavoidable evil. I’ve recently become less in favour of wind as an economic alternative, but tidal/wave and geothermal should be looked at more seriously in Japan. And of course the current Internet darling of thorium is another promising target of research and development funding.

For your reference, here is a Japanese government survey from December 2009 into nuclear power.