That's right, plants which don't run don't produce emissions. But they don't produce energy either.

But read the article and look at 2020-2022: coal energy generation increased while nuclear decreased:

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_...

This is a situation incompatible with a policy of increasing safety. Increasing safety means shutting down unsafe sources while keeping or rolling out safe sources, which is the opposite of the short-term trend. So the short-term policy goal was something other than safety.