Is Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s plan for returning to profitability — restarting nuclear power plants to raise enough cash to pay off the damage caused by their inability to properly manage nuclear power plants — supported by government officials?

The damage caused to the Fukushima area and the continuing potential for disaster from exposed reactor rods is not something that can be swept under the rug while finance people dance around with profit projections. Nor should nationalizing Tepco be undertaken merely to hand taxpayers a bill for corporate screwups. Tepco should never be handed back to business entities again.

The March 11, 2011, nuclear disaster was decades in the making, and the results of it will effectively be with Japan and the rest of the world forever. We need to stop thinking of supplying energy as merely a profit mechanism for rich people and start thinking about how it fits into the rest of society and the environment.

The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.

angela bartlett