The earthquake in Japan has been the main topic in the news the last couple of days. The destruction and devastation has been massive throughout the country. But the news continues to get worse. There are nuclear power plants in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station that are exploding and leaking radioactive material. The tsunami may have caused the failure of the cooling systems in the nuclear power plants. This failure then lead to the presumed leakage. Not only is this a pressing matter for thousands of Japanese who worry about their safety, this failure puts into question the stability of nuclear energy.
"Japan is one of the world’s top consumers of nuclear energy. The country’s 17 nuclear plants — boasting 55 reactors — have provided about 30 percent of its electricity needs." So this issue is going to create a lot of problems in the Japanese energy industry. While the Japanese depend on their nuclear energy, this natural disaster has showed that nuclear power is dangerous. Something needs to be done to make this energy safer. The leaking of radioactive material is a very serious issue. Something needs to be done, whether more safety precautions, or a slow shut down of nuclear energy all together.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/world/asia/13nuclear-industry.html?_r=2&ref=global-home
Whitney, I am going to have to disagree with some of your points. We are asking for too much from each other. This was an extremely powerful earth quake, thus, how could we expect anything to withstand a tsunami, let alone an earth quake. The safety precautions were probably all up to date and implemented correctly. This plant got hit by a tsunami AND suffered damaged from an earthquake, are we really supposed to expect it to be completely intact? Nuclear energy is very efficient, and up until a tsunami and earthquake hit the plant, it has been very safe.
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