Japan on gas, coal power building spree to fill nuclear void

[kristopher]

8. Nuclear isn't at all compatible with renewables.

It isn't flexible enough. The variability of renewables isn't a problem at all in a properly designed system. But, nuclear isn't part of a system properly designed for renewables, they are part of a system designed for coal.

You are also remarkably inaccurate about Germany:
1) They've been working on the plan for shutting down their nuclear fleet since 2001. This was hardly a kneejerk decision.
2) They ARE NOT replacing the nuclear with coal and gas in any meaningful sense. As has been shown on DUEE any number of times, their new fossil generation is replacing older plants that are neither as efficient nor as flexible. The new ones are designed to facilitate significant increases in the level of wind and solar generation.
3) The planning (and construction for most) of the new plants has been underway long before Fukushima. To ascribe their existence to panic is again, remarkably inaccurate.


Finally, I personally think the Japanese are in a far better position to evaluate their personal and social costs re Fukushima than you are. Your post seems to have a hard edge of pronuclear bias that dismisses the price your desires exact from others.