Japan Restarts Two of Its 50 Nuclear Reactors 224
Darth_brooks writes "Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda ordered the restart of two idle nuclear reactors Saturday, amid split public response. The Japanese government is trying to fill a summer power shortfall. According to the article, the two reactors supply power to the Kansai region near Osaka, where local officials were predicting a 15% shortfall in power capacity during July and August."
Shortages are a solved problem. (Score:4, Interesting)
There's another way to fix the shortfall: simply raise the price of peak hour electricity until demand falls to the level of supply [wikipedia.org]. We've known for hundreds of years that prices set below the going rate determined by supply and demand [wikipedia.org] is the cause of shortages.
The increased peak hour revenue could be used to lower off-peak electricity prices so that people pay on average the same as before.
Re:not actually that unpopular locally (Score:5, Interesting)
Agreed. I also like how 32% opposed to the restart, and 38% with no opinions in public polls (numbers in the the same NHK feed they sourced) is "widespread public opposition".