I would say no, we do not need it. Nuclear reactor's were designed to power submarines not cities. Earthquake or not, they are dangerous and do pollute.
All that aside, don't know how informed you all are but there have been 3 explosion's thus far in Japan. The Japanese government isn't giving all the details, I just hope the radiation doesn't spread to far.
Many things we have now came from military use. Remote controlled cars were initially a military project. And aeroplanes. You can't say we shouldn't use it because it was designed for military use, not commercial
Anyway, how else is Japan gonna power itself?
They had to invade part of China after world war one or two (can't remeber which). They have very natuarl resources and the cost to go green would be billions. Japan can't afford billions right now, lets face it. It would also take, money no object, at LEAST one decade for Japan to become fully powered by green energy. And there's all the visual pollution caused by the way they would harness the green energy
Nuclear power is likely to be the largest source of energy in the next 20 years. If it isn't, it will defintly be second