In March 2011, following a major earthquake and tsunami in Japan, a nuclear reactor called Fukushima Daiichi experienced a major meltdown. Equipment failures were rampant, and the release of radioactive materials resulted. Three of the plant’s six reactors melted down, causing hydrogen explosions and forcing thousands of residents of Tokyo to flee. Japan’s government graded the disaster a 7, the highest possible mark, on the International Nuclear Event Scale, and we may not know for decades how the leaked radiation will affect the workers at the plant, or the citizens of Tokyo who lived nearby.
In short, it was an unmitigated disaster for nuclear power advocates, who for more than three decades following the accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979 have tried to reassure the public that nuclear power was safe.
Continue reading at One Year After Fukushima, the U.S. Announces a New Nuclear Plant. Is this a Good Idea?
