Global fallout

A year ago this week, the world watched with helpless horror as Japan teetered on the brink of nuclear disaster. A massive earthquake triggered giant tsunami waves that slammed Japan’s northeastern coast.

But it was the man-made disaster that unfolded with the meltdown of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant that had the international community holding its collective breath for months on end. Few would have forgotten the images of terrified but stoic Japanese fleeing the disaster zone or waiting for rescue teams to reach them.

Few would have forgotten too the heroism of workers at the plant, who went back to put out the fires even as nuclear contamination levels were dangerously high and life threatening. But the nuclear disaster was a wake-up call too that drew the world’s attention to the perils of nuclear energy, especially when those designing or running the reactors operate in an environment of opacity. Tokyo Electric Power Company’s reluctance to share with the public the enormity of the disaster stood in the way of people getting the right kind of help and medical attention.

Fukushima’s fallout was felt beyond Japan’s shores. It stirred intense debate world-wide over the fundamentally dangerous nature of nuclear energy. It drew attention to the dangers posed not just by nuclear weapons, but by reactors too, even those meant for peaceful purposes. It underscored the fact that even the most carefully designed reactors are vulnerable to human error and natural calamities, and that when safeguards in these supposedly secure reactors crumble, a disaster of catastrophic proportions looms. It pointed to the essentially risky nature of the nuclear business. It forced several countries to rethink their nuclear programmes, with some even questioning the wisdom of nuclear energy.

The Fukushima disaster cannot be blamed on ‘Nature’s Fury.’ That Japan is vulnerable to quakes and tsunamis was known. But corporates went ahead and set up reactors and were permitted even encouraged by the Japanese government to do so. Across the world, the nuclear industry lacks transparency. This is the case in India too where public debate and dissent over nuclear power has been crushed with the use of state power. India’s reactors might not lie in the most seismic areas but the shroud of secrecy around our nuclear programme is deepening public anxiety. We cannot afford a disaster like the one at Fukushima Daiichi.