These points are just the tip of the iceberg of international anti-nuclear sentiment.
Anti-nuclear sentiment was so strong in Germany at the end of the 1990s that the ruling socialist-green alliance banned new plants.
Over all, the anti-nuclear sentiment is likely to be less strong than after the more serious Chernobyl reactor explosion in the former Soviet Union in 1986.
The organisations that demonstrate each year against nuclear weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain quiet on nuclear energy.Anti-nuclear sentiment has made a strong impact in the politics of one prefecture, in addition to Fukushima itself.
The 11 reactors still in operation are due to go down for maintenance between now and next September, and that in theory could leave Japan with zero nuclear-generated electricity — although that is unlikely, given the pro-nuclear sentiment of governors in some prefectures and the intense pressure for restarts from Tokyo.
On the other hand, environmentalists argue that that emissions target is half-hearted and that it is focused almost exclusively on the supply side: Hong Kong is aiming to lower its reliance on coal, while raising the share that nuclear power contributes to its energy mix, bucking the wave of anti-nuclear sentiment that has swept the globe since the disaster in Japan.
The British, Czechs and Finns, who are all also looking at a design by America's Westinghouse (the Finns are examining a South Korean one, too), would not be keen to be captive customers, but they may choose EPRs anyway.The most labile European country on matters nuclear has, not surprisingly, been Germany, where great engineering and anti-nuclear sentiment have long coexisted uneasily.
It is also tackling the problem of formulating an energy policy in a nation where anti-nuclear sentiment is running high.
The natural disaster triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which in turn has stoked strong anti-nuclear sentiment in the country.
However, such is the strength of anti-nuclear sentiment in Germany that Merkel felt she had no choice but to close the reactors anyway. .
Last week, the Japanese utility that operated the Fukushima facility, Tepco, admitted for the first time that it had long known improvements were necessary to harden facilities from catastrophes like tsunamis, but that it failed to act -- in part because it wanted to avoid stirring anti-nuclear sentiment, as well as increased risks of litigation.
