As damaged Japanese nuclear reactors continue to emit radioactive steam in billows of untold… As damaged Japanese nuclear reactors continue to emit radioactive steam in billows of untold size, it’s time for American young people to start thinking ­­— but not about where to find the closest fallout shelter.

Instead of using the ensuing nuclear crisis in earthquake- and tsunami-ridden Japan as an excuse to panic, our generation should instead use it as an opportunity to appreciate the enormous task ahead of us: solving the broader energy crisis.

U.S. and Japanese officials have offered competing accounts of on-the-ground facts, with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman saying “radiation levels are extremely high” and Japanese officials refuting those claims, according to The New York Times. What we know for sure is that at least three explosions have occurred in the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant, fuel rods in certain reactors are experiencing partial meltdowns, and an evacuation perimeter has been established to protect citizens from airborne radiation.

With or without a clear idea of what’s happening, we can be sure that the Fukushima partial meltdown, the most severe nuclear incident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, will have a big impact in our ongoing energy discussion.

Specifically, it should impact the way young people think about the future of American energy production. Granted, few Pitt students are likely to land jobs as nuclear engineers right after graduation, but that doesn’t mean the energy issue won’t hit home for all of us. Fuel prices continue their unabated rise, boosting food and commodity prices and in turn threatening America’s economic recovery. Oh yeah, and the U.S. — you guessed it — is still in Iraq.

What the Japanese nuclear crisis should not do is make us act out of fear, like calling for the nonspecific freezing of the construction of new nuclear reactors on American soil. It should instead have the future voters and leaders of our country — us — the complicated nature of the energy debate and that any decision we’ll someday make must carry its set of consequences and contingencies. From wind to solar to coal to nuclear to off-shore drilling to shale-fracking, it’s clear that no energy panacea exists for the future’s taking. The Fukushima incident only reinforces that concept.