Japan has added its name to the growing list of countries turning away from nuclear power. It's an historic blow to an industry already in decline and makes a British nuclear renaissance even less likely.
Before the disaster at Fukushima, there was talk of nuclear power providing 50% of Japanese electricity. Now the government has decided that by 2030, Japan will have phased out nuclear power altogether.
The meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant was a wake-up call. Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Belgium quickly decided nuclear wasn't a risk worth taking. Against all the odds - and helped by a fortuitously warm winter - Germany managed to turn off 8 nuclear reactors almost overnight without increasing greenhouse gas emissions.
Investor confidence in the nuclear industry is at an all time low and the cost of new nuclear is spiralling out of control. Yet the British government is still trying to put nuclear power at the heart of our energy policy.
In desperation to keep their nuclear dream alive, they're planning to rig electricity prices, guaranteeing hidden subsidies and massive profits to anyone who builds a new nuclear power plant. This is at the expense of funding renewable energy such as wind power, which is cheaper and faster to build.
Even some nuclear lobbyists have had enough. The Supporters of Nuclear Energy recently wrote to the Energy Secretary Ed Davey and Chancellor George Osborne, complaining that households and businesses would "pay through the nose" for new nuclear.
Instead of forcing us to pay for the nuclear industry's failures, the government should follow Germany's example and invest in clean renewable energy. It should also put energy saving at the centre of our energy policy. That would insulate households from rising gas prices and create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the green economy.
If other countries can do it, what's stopping us?
