Nuclear issues are a huge topic in our society today. As Hiroshima becomes more and more of a memory, Fukishima is now the current threat. A similar incident to what happened in Fukishima happened years ago at Thee Mile Island complex in in Pennsylvania. In turn, the government hides something because of the fear that the public will be too alarmed. Despite millions of dollars paid, nothing about the incident in Pennsylvania made its way into a corporate report. The fact of the matter is, things can go wrong with nuclear power plants and if they do, the problem is something that we probably cannot control. Chenobyl was not expected to explode, and who knows if one of the many nuclear plants in the United States will do the same in the near future. Ralph Nader recently said, “The unfolding multiple nuclear reactor catastrophe in Japan is prompting overdue attention to the 104 nuclear power plants in the United States-many of them aging, many of them near earthquake faults, some on the west coast exposed to potential tsunamis.” Who knows how long all the dismissal will go on? More than likely until there is an even than cannot be denied. There is a new generation of nuclear reactors being introduced in the near future, called Gen 4, that are promised to be much safer but only time will tell if this is true.
Title: Beyond Fukishima: A World in Denial About Nuclear Risks
Author: Danny Schechter
Source: Commondreams.org
URL: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/21-0
Student Researcher: Josh Crockett, Sonoma State University
Faculty Evaluator: Heather Flynn, Sonoma State University