With climate change concerns on the table, proponents push nuclear power as a "clean" energy. But the aftermath of the Fukushima meltdown provides one of many reasons why nuclear energy should be examined more closely.
It's been nearly three years since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, but its effects are still being felt in Japan and elsewhere in the world. Three hundred thousand Japanese refugees still live in makeshift camps, and on the other side of the Pacific, a forthcoming study quantifies the effects of "low" doses of traveling radioactive contamination on children's health in California.
According to some experts, Japan is incapable of safely decommissioning the Fukushima nuclear plant alone. Every day, hundreds of tons of radioactively contaminated water leak out of the damaged reactors, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has suggested dumping the toxic water into the Pacific Oceanonce the water has been partially decontaminated. But it has been estimated that the process of even partially decontaminating the water already stored will take at least seven years.
In a Climate Reality Check Coalition conference call in December 2013, political activist Ralph Nader and radioactive waste watchdog at Beyond Nuclear Kevin Kamps discussed the problems they've identified with nuclear power and the powerful forces behind the industry.
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