In Japan, nuclear bestsellers reflect new debate via Washington Post.com

In Japan, nuclear bestsellers reflect new debate
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By Chico Harlan, Tuesday, July 19, 5:31 AM
TOKYO — A Japanese nuclear researcher with a four-decade track record of activism and obscurity was walking through Kansai International Airport a few weeks ago when he spotted a display of bestsellers at a bookstore. Glancing down, he saw his latest book, “The Lie of Nuclear Power,” with his face emblazoned on a corner of the cover.

For Hiroaki Koide, the moment confirmed a shift — that of a fringe interest turning mainstream. Four months into the most severe nuclear crisis in a quarter-century, while Japan’s bureaucrats and power industry chiefs tussle over nuclear energy policy, at least one industry has raced to make wholesale adjustments. Publishers are releasing books about nuclear power at the rate of more than one a day, according to bookselling Web sites, begging for content from authors who once wondered why they had so few readers.

Japan’s nuclear crisis: Japan battles to prevent a nuclear catastrophe and to care for millions of people without power or water in its worst crisis since World War II.
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