10 Years since the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster
By Philip White* March 2021
Philip White was international liaison officer for the Tokyo-based Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center at the time of the Fukushima nuclear accident. In 2014 he completed a PhD on public participation in Japan’s nuclear energy policy-forming process.
- Remembering the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster
- How the disaster unfolded
- What’s the situation now?
Evacuees — Health issues — Liability and compensation — Decontamination of the environment and agriculture — Radioactive water and fishing — Decommissioning of nuclear power plants — Cost - Post-Fukushima energy policy
- Putting it in perspective
- References
Remembering the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster
Ten years ago, three of the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station suffered melt downs in the days following a Magnitude 9 earthquake that struck off the northeast coast of Japan on 11 March 2011. Along with the 1986 nuclear accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station in the former Soviet Union, it was one of the two worst nuclear power accidents in history.
On the tenth anniversary, it is important that we remember what happened then and what has happened since. It is in the interests of those who caused the accident that we forget. We must refuse to do so, for the sake of the victims and to prevent more disasters in future.
The most important take-home message is that the disaster is far from over. In order to win the bid for the (now postponed) 2020 Olympics, then Prime Minister Abe asserted that the nuclear accident was ‘under control’. The government now calls the games (if they are ever held) ‘the recovery Olympics’, with the torch relay route running through Fukushima Prefecture. But despite the efforts of the Japanese Government and the nuclear industry to lull the Japanese public and the world into a false sense of security, the fact is that radioactive contamination remains and many people continue to suffer.… Read more >>
