Fukushima

by

Japan sends nuclear waste to the US for disposal

Mckirdy, Euan. “Japan Agrees to Hand over Nuclear Material to United States.” CNN. Cable News Network, 25 Mar. 2014. Web. 01 Mar. 2015. <http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/25/world/asia/us-japan-nuclear-fuel-deal/index.html>.

In this CNN article we see that the US and Japan were discussing a plan on how to transport japans nuclear waste form the Fast Critical Assembly(FCA) in Japan, to a secure facility here in the United States. The pledge that both the US and Japan signed was meant to show that these two nations were going to continue to promote improving nuclear safety and security around the world. The US started a program to prompt the disposal of HEU and Plutonium in order to keep it out of the hands of criminals and terrorists. The US has extend its support to other nations especially now that the US is in talks with the iranians about their nuclear program and the tension has risen on the korean peninsula. The US agreed on the delivery of 700 lbs. of weapons grade uranium to be transported to the US, so that it can be degraded and used in a safer way.

I feel that the US is doing a good thing in wanting for countries to dispose of their unused plutonium and maybe downgrading it, but I don’t agree with that nuclear waste being transported from other countries thousands of miles away to the US and maybe causing a huge disaster on route to these repository plants. I also don’t know where the US is going to put all of this radioactive material because it seems that the US hasn’t figured out what to do with its own nuclear waste much less with the waste of other world nations.

 

by

How Fukushima changed world’s attitude to nuclear power

Kottasova, Ivana. “How Fukushima Changed World’s Attitudes to Nuclear Power.” CNN. Cable News Network, 12 Mar. 2014. Web. 01 Mar. 2015. <http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/12/business/nuclear-power-after-fukushima/index.html#top_of_page>.

This article talks about how the worlds view on nuclear power has changed due to the recent nuclear disaster that occurred in japan. after the japanese nuclear meltdown many of the nuclear power runned nations were stunned due to the high regulations that japan has on its plants also the effects made many countries think twice about their nuclear plants safety. Some statistics were taken to see the effects of the Fukushima incident and they found that before the accident 442 plants in 30 countries were operating and in 2012 15 reactors had closed. Although 12 reactors had closed recent studies show that there are now 435 active reactors in 31 countries and about 68 new plants are being constructed. Japan stopped it nuclear power program and are thinking of restarting, while in germany they closed 8 reactors and they are now considering changing from nuclear to renewable energy. Switzerland is following in germany’s footsteps and hopes to get rid of nuclear power by 2036. The US and France, two of the worlds biggest users of nuclear power are thinking of securing their reactors more but are not considering a change to other power sources.

I feel that this article was helpful in showing us how the worlds nuclear power was disoriented after the fukushima incident. This article also provides key statistics which help us learn more on certain countries nuclear programs. One of the most surprising things that I noticed from this article were that a few years after the incident the world was back on nuclear power with 435 reactors in 31 countries and with the undergoing construction of about 68 more reactors. This showed me how the world moved on from the nuclear incident and instead of keeping the number of reactors leveled decided to add more reactors which only means more potential problems for these countries and their counterparts.