For those calling this short sighted idiocy:

There is significant opposition to the restart of the nuke plants because nothing has been done to improve safety at the plants or emergency procedures (which proved to be woefully inadequate post Fukushima) in the surrounding communities to deal with another nuclear incident - which is likely given there is a 70% chance of another major quake within the next few years.

Ohi, the first plant scheduled to restart, has been found to be sitting on several active faults, and the only thing the government has done to test if it is safe is run computer simulations which even Nuclear Safety Commission chief Madarame said were not sufficient to ensure safety (additionally, disaster simulations done with the government's SPEEDI system are based on ludicrously positive scenarios many times less severe than what happened at Fukushima, when they should be based on bad or worst case scenarios). Again, none of the needed upgrades to equipment, infrastructure or emergency procedures at Ohi have been completed.

The public is rightly wary of the restarts given the utilities have been plagued with scandals for years, and a lot of cost-cutting and otherwise unsafe practices have been exposed in the wake of Fukushima. Sure, most of the country's plants may be fine if there are more quakes, but following the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl it's fair enough that the people in this country do not want to take the risk.

It will be tight this summer, and there could be shortages, but that said a lot of the "blackouts are coming!" cries are from the nuke industry and other vested interests trying to scare the public into compliance. With energy efficiency and intelligent demand management there is more than enough natural gas backup to cover shortfalls and keep the lights on. The government has had a year to plan for this eventuality, any shortages are management failures not supply issues.