The March 2011 explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in Japan left many Americans wondering how the U.S. response would fare in the event of a nuclear catastrophe. The answer, according to a recent report, is not well.
“Japan was not prepared for a meltdown,” said Ira Helfand, MD, North American vice president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and past president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, which released the March 6 report. “The U.S. remains dangerously unprepared.”
Were such an incident to take place at one of the 104 nuclear reactors in the United States, it would require an emergency response unprecedented in U.S. history. Depending on the location of the stricken reactor, responders might be called on to evacuate tens of millions of people, something that has never been done and something many emergency response officials doubt would be possible.
To continue reading this story from the May/June 2012 issue of The Nation’s Health, visit the newspaper online.
2 comments
James Aach says:
May 2, 2012
FYI: If you would like a more detailed look at a US reactor and how it might respond to an emergency, the novel “Rad Decision”, written by a longtime engineer in the nuclear industry, is a decent place to start. It is free online, just Google the title or go to my website.
Ehduard says:
Sep 12, 2012
Nuclear power is very expensive and is helvaiy subsidised by governments. The development of nuclear power supports the development of nuclear weapons. Note which countries posses nuclear defences and which countries promote nuclear power?!Facts:Currently only 2% of the world’s energy consumption comes from nuclear power.70% of energy generated by nuclear powerstations is needed for the process itself (i.e. cooling, transportation of nuclear wast etc)The problem of nuclear waste is still unresolved.When will governments subsidies renewables as they do nuclear?