By Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 5th, 2012
“On March 11, 2011, Japan experienced its worst earthquake in the 140 years of recorded history ofearthquake measurements,” recently stated The Federation of American Scientists (FAS), “and isexperiencing its worst—to date—nuclear incident.”
“The worst-case accident involved a reactor meltdown and substantial release of radioactive materials to theenvironment,” added the Federation.
FAS is a government and nuclear policy watchdog group – the quotes are from a recent online statementpublished by the Federation which honored the one-year anniversary of the tragedy.
“There are still many questions one year after the 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the northeast coast ofJapan and devastated Northern Honshu,” declared the FAS statement.
“One crucial question to Japan’s long-term economic growth is what to do about nuclear power,” pointed outthe Federation.
“On March 9, 2012, [FAS President Charles] Ferguson was interviewed by Toni Johnson of the Council onForeign Relations on Japan’s Nuclear Dilemma:
As a result, the Japanese economy is taking a hit, says nuclear expert Charles D. Ferguson, due to loss of significant power generation and high imported energy costs. Yet, he adds, Japan is not open to renewable energy as an alternative.
‘There’s a lot of resistance institutionally in Japan to using renewable energies, wind and solar in particular, and also geothermal,’ he says, and the government is trying to figure out if they can ‘get any public support to start bringing these nuclear power plants back into operation.’
On lessons the nuclear industry can learn from Fukushima, Ferguson says there needs to be better accountability to the public and improvements in nuclear safety procedures.”
“[The 2011 Japanese earthquake and attendant nuclear meltdowns at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant]are chiseled into the consciousness of virtually everyone who follows the news, and these events have servedto engrave even more deeply the fears that so many have of nuclear power,” pointed out FAS.
