Who suffers? These poor children who can no longer play and these families who are terrified, unnecessarily in most casts, from returning to their homes.
Anti-nuclear groups have made the same case about Chernobyl, claiming that over 1,000,000 people have been killed as a consequence of that tragic disaster. Yet the best epidemiological studies carried out by the United Nations suggests that only 56 deaths can be directly attributable to the Chernobyl disaster, even after all these years! It’s extraordinary, but it also happens to be true.
Radiation, it turns out, is an extremely weak carcinogen. It takes quite a high dose in order to do physical damage, far higher than what’s found today inside the exclusion zone at Fukushima. We took dosimeter readings in and around the Fukushima Exclusion Zone. There’s no question that the radiation levels there are elevated. I saw that for myself with the dosimeter I brought along. But the dose to which one is exposed in all but a few hot spots does not pose a threat to human health, hard as that may be to believe. Dose level is the key issue. Even apples contain cyanide in them, but the level is so low as to be harmless to us.
The media thrives on fanning the flames of fear because it gets our attention and drives ratings. Saying something is actually not so dangerous isn’t news. Sadly, the authorities in Japan has lost the trust of the people and so people understandably tend to believe the worst. This is a great failing of the leadership during the crisis in Japan in March 2011, particularly at TEPCO.
Scientific authorities need to regain the trust of the Japanese people. They need to explain the science behind their findings and be open and honest with both the good news and the bad news. Only then will they be believed and the fear-mongers be banished.
Q. In Japan, most of environmental conservationists and liberal groups are opposed to nuclear energy. Also in the last national election, opposition parties were all holding up the promise of abandoning nuclear power generation. What is the reason you were changed your opinion to support the promotion of nuclear power? Also, in the US, are there a lot of people who changed their situation to stand by nuclear power like you?
I changed my mind about nuclear energy when I came to realize, as many others are beginning to as well, that renewable energy alone can never replace fossil fuels, and that the continued burning of fossil fuels is leading us at an alarming rate towards a climate catastrophe.
This caused me and others to take a second look at nuclear power and to examine the reality of it’s perceived dangers from an environmental perspective.
