When a country experiences a major nuclear accident, a change of nuclear energy policy inevitably follows because of the impact on the region concerned. The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant disaster in 1979 forced the United States to stop ordering new nuclear power plant reactors. The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 was pivotal in the decision by western European nations to place less reliance on nuclear energy. It would be only natural to expect that the Sept. 30 nuclear accident in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, proves to be the turning point in Japan government's nuclear policy from now on.