For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind
- Hosea 8:7
A very interesting passage from the Old Testament that pretty much sums up the looming fate that the land of the Rising Sun is slowly coming to accept. Expats have started to slowly move out of Japan in tiny droves. The very thought of radiation being carried south into Tokyo and its other cities alongside the memories of the horrific images of the fallout of the Chernobyl disaster in 1989 could give anyone the goose bumps.
However many Japanese are still staying put, hoping against hope that their Government would eventually issue a statement despite reasonable doubt, that things have been brought under control in Fukushima and that they can go on with their lives like before as if nothing ever happened. In fact, when the
earthquake followed by the tsunami first hit Japan on the 11th of March, the stability of the nuclear plant was a mere blimp on the scale of the tsunami disaster. It took a few days to blow its top off.
As the whole world decides to take stock of the safety of their Nuclear Plants, India wobbles in the middle of nowhere. After the landmark India-US Nuclear Deal in October 2008 that pulled India out of Nuclear Isolation and gave her access to the world market, things were indeed supposed to look up. Giant US Companies like Westinghouse and GE were lining up to get a large chunk of the Indian Nuclear pie where power generation is presently tagged at 4,800MW and projected to increase to 20,000MW by 2020.
For a country starved of energy where periodic power cuts are part of the norm, nuclear energy seemed like a Godsend. Its reputation for being both clean and reliable has not been tarnished even after both the Chernobyl and 3 Mile Island disasters. Moreover when one sees developed nations such as the US having more than 100 Nuclear power plants and France getting more than 50% of its power from Nuclear energy, one can only feel reassured.
However a rethink has already been initiated worldwide. Germany and Switzerland have already announced moratoriums on any new nuclear power plants in the offing while lobbyists were sleepless in Capitol Hill last week trying to prove to congressmen how safe Nuclear Power actually is.
As much as the newly-emerged-from-nowhere antagonists would want to push their agenda of extreme caution, one must remember that nuclear fuel is by an large clean and does not pollute the environment as much as Fossil Fuels do. It also has the ability to drive an entire economy, as it does in France. Most importantly it does not contribute to global warming.
On the other hand protagonists should realize that it just takes one big tragedy (like the one in Japan to occur) to destroy its entire perception and nullify the benefits it has provided till now.The lasting after-effects of nuclear radiation upon our species could become a much trumpeted up charge used to freeze the use of Nuclear energy until we have more security structures in place.
However the very fact that nuclear radiation is harmful to humans should not be seen as the sole reason for putting nuclear energy on the backburner, for conventional sources of energy are already causing as much damage to the already fragile environment albeit at a much slower and less noticeable rate.
The IAEA should move fast to ensure that the structures that it has till date enforced to ensure security of nuclear plants are strictly adhered too. It also now has the arduous task at hand of designing disaster containment systems that would be able to sustain any possible incident of this magnitude or even greater that may occur in the future.
In all this hustle and bustle of repeated telecasts of floating houses, smoking power plants, a population shaken with facemasks and newsmakers who just want to get as close to the source of radiation as possible to make a story break, is the howling sound of a mighty whirlwind and an Industry who's entire future could depend upon the Control Rods in several of the defunct Nuclear reactors.
First on Technorati
- Hosea 8:7
A very interesting passage from the Old Testament that pretty much sums up the looming fate that the land of the Rising Sun is slowly coming to accept. Expats have started to slowly move out of Japan in tiny droves. The very thought of radiation being carried south into Tokyo and its other cities alongside the memories of the horrific images of the fallout of the Chernobyl disaster in 1989 could give anyone the goose bumps.
earthquake followed by the tsunami first hit Japan on the 11th of March, the stability of the nuclear plant was a mere blimp on the scale of the tsunami disaster. It took a few days to blow its top off.
As the whole world decides to take stock of the safety of their Nuclear Plants, India wobbles in the middle of nowhere. After the landmark India-US Nuclear Deal in October 2008 that pulled India out of Nuclear Isolation and gave her access to the world market, things were indeed supposed to look up. Giant US Companies like Westinghouse and GE were lining up to get a large chunk of the Indian Nuclear pie where power generation is presently tagged at 4,800MW and projected to increase to 20,000MW by 2020.
For a country starved of energy where periodic power cuts are part of the norm, nuclear energy seemed like a Godsend. Its reputation for being both clean and reliable has not been tarnished even after both the Chernobyl and 3 Mile Island disasters. Moreover when one sees developed nations such as the US having more than 100 Nuclear power plants and France getting more than 50% of its power from Nuclear energy, one can only feel reassured.
However a rethink has already been initiated worldwide. Germany and Switzerland have already announced moratoriums on any new nuclear power plants in the offing while lobbyists were sleepless in Capitol Hill last week trying to prove to congressmen how safe Nuclear Power actually is.
As much as the newly-emerged-from-nowhere antagonists would want to push their agenda of extreme caution, one must remember that nuclear fuel is by an large clean and does not pollute the environment as much as Fossil Fuels do. It also has the ability to drive an entire economy, as it does in France. Most importantly it does not contribute to global warming.
On the other hand protagonists should realize that it just takes one big tragedy (like the one in Japan to occur) to destroy its entire perception and nullify the benefits it has provided till now.The lasting after-effects of nuclear radiation upon our species could become a much trumpeted up charge used to freeze the use of Nuclear energy until we have more security structures in place.
However the very fact that nuclear radiation is harmful to humans should not be seen as the sole reason for putting nuclear energy on the backburner, for conventional sources of energy are already causing as much damage to the already fragile environment albeit at a much slower and less noticeable rate.
The IAEA should move fast to ensure that the structures that it has till date enforced to ensure security of nuclear plants are strictly adhered too. It also now has the arduous task at hand of designing disaster containment systems that would be able to sustain any possible incident of this magnitude or even greater that may occur in the future.
In all this hustle and bustle of repeated telecasts of floating houses, smoking power plants, a population shaken with facemasks and newsmakers who just want to get as close to the source of radiation as possible to make a story break, is the howling sound of a mighty whirlwind and an Industry who's entire future could depend upon the Control Rods in several of the defunct Nuclear reactors.
First on Technorati
2 comments:
In this particular instance the fatal flaw that opened the Pandora's Box seems to their auxiliary power generator being sited on the ground and became inoperable because of flooding. After 40 years, they still didn't have the foresight to remedy that weakness!
We should definitely be paying attention to the health effects of nuclear radiation. My heart goes out to those in Japan. Unfortunately, we will all be affected, even if at lower levels. No amount of exposure is safe! The current talk about "hot particles" reminds us how concerning it is to have a radioactive particle lodged in the body forever.
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