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Is Fukushima the new normal for nuclear reactors?

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 23:28 authored by Benjamin SovacoolBenjamin Sovacool
The new crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan saw radioactive water leak again from the crippled facility, raising fears that groundwater flowing into the Pacific Ocean could be contaminated. The Japanese government also raised the international incident level - the scale used to assess nuclear accidents - from one to three out of seven. The original nuclear meltdown following the 2011 Japanese earthquake was scaled seven. Even if Fukushima was ultimately caused by the 2011 earthquake and ensuing tsunami, accidents such as this beg the question: can nuclear energy ever be truly safe? There are three reasons to think that nuclear accidents are common, and could increase - and it's not because of the technology. Let's have a look at the evidence.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Chain Reaction

ISSN

0312-1372

Publisher

Friends of the Earth Australia

Volume

119

Page range

28-29

Department affiliated with

  • SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2016-01-19

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