The accident at Fuk hima
destroyed Japan’s faith
FIVE YEARS ON FROM in nuclear powerTHE MELTDOWN AT
THE FUKUSHIMA
DAIICHI POWER
PLANT, NUCLEAR
ENERGY REMAINS
CONTROVERSIAL. BUT
WITH FOSSIL FUELS
DWINDLING, CAN
WE AFFORD
TO IGNORE
NUCLEAR
ENERGY
FOREVER?
WORDS: DUNCAN GEEREn 11 March 2011, the future
became the past. A magnitude
9.0 earthquake striking about
70km off the Pacific coast of Japan sent
a huge surge of water towards the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power
plant. The control room tried to shut it
down, but water damage caused the
diesel generators to fail, preventing
coolant systems from operating. Three
of the reactors in the plant suffered
core meltdowns, with a ser ies of
accompanying explosions and the
release of large amounts of radioactive
material into the environment. It was a
decisive moment in the history of
energy , turning a generation against
nuclear power.
Five years on and the effects of the
disaster are still apparent: small
amounts of radiation continue to leak
in to the Pacific Ocean and tonnes of
waste and debris remain to be cleared.
Rewind to 1946: The Atomic Age.
Following the development of nuclear
energy alongside nuclear weapons in
WWII, newspapers, magazines and
research papers were f il led with bold
predictions about a utopian future
powered by the energy of the atom.
David Lilienthal, chairman of the US
Atomic Energy Commission, was
among the most enthusiastic. “Atomic
energy is not simply a search for new
energy, but more significantly a
beginning of human history in which
faith in knowledge can vitalise man’s
whole life,” he said.
Slowly, however, public perception
of nuclear energy began to change.
During the 1960s and 1970s, itgradually slipped in popularity. The
1979 nuclear meltdown at
Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island,
combined with the growing
environmental movement and the
ar ms race of the Cold War, tur ned
more and more people against the
technology. The wave of public
opposition crested in 1986 following
the Chernobyl accident. Less than 30
years after its grand arrival, the nuclear
dream was on life support.
“The Chernobyl accident almost
brought to a halt the deployment of
nuclear power plants,” explains
Nikolaus Muel lner, head of the
International Nuclear Risk Assessment
Group, an independent body of
nuclear safety experts. “The first
generation of plants was constructed
and built in the 50s and 60s, then the
second generation was built in the 70s
and 80s. Then you have a gap.” During
that gap, researchers came up with a
‘third generation’ reactor design that
was significantly safer – it could handle
an accident like Chernobyl without
releasing significant amounts of
radioactive material into the
environment. But in the face of
widespread public opposition, it was
impossible to build and test these
plants. The nuclear industry was stuck
in limbo – it couldn’t improve the
safety of its plants without building
new reactors, but public fears over
safety meant that no new reactors
could be built.
Then the Fukushima disaster
happened. Opposition to nuclear
energy, which had faded somewhatO
PHOTO: PRESS ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATOR: MAGIC TORCH