“Fukushima – The Nuclear Disaster and the Other Face of Japan” is a book that explores the backgrounds of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, and the looming phantom of such catastrophes.
Recently released by Al Arabi Publishing and Distribution, Cairo, the book is written by British researcher Andrew Letherbarrow, and translated into Arabic by Rania Sabri Ali.
On March 11, 2011, a quake hit the depth of the Pacific Ocean with a power that redistributed the land masses, and shifted the main axes of the Earth, shortening the day/night cycle. A massive, unstoppable tsunami emerged from the epicenter of the quake, 57 kilometers to the east of Japan, and reached the Japanese coastline in 40 minutes, hitting the Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant, the closest nuclear facility to the quake center, with 14-meter-high waves.
The earthquakes shook the foundations of the facility, but it managed to survive and became a refuge for those who lost their homes. After around 90 minutes, another tsunami hit another nuclear facility, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, one of the largest and most impactful worldwide. At the time, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, and owner of the Fukushima Daiichi, claimed that they took all the necessary measures to prepare for such an event. However, these measures weren’t sufficient, the weak coastal defenses of Fukushima drowned easily, which prevented the plant from cooling its six reactors, and led to the most horrifying nuclear crisis in the past 25 years.
The writer sees that the 2011 eastern Japan quake was perhaps a natural disaster, but the collapse of Fukushima Daiichi is a man-made event, and could have been prepared for and prevented.
Letherbarrow quotes the editorial of the Japan Times newspaper seven years before the catastrophe, which reads: “It is one of the places that no sane man would dare choose to build nuclear power plants, which are so many in Japan.”
The Japanese people have always rejected nuclear power, especially after the second world war, but a western campaign driven by economic and political interests managed to convince them to be more accepting in this field. However, the nuclear power industry failed to provide the safety and security measures needed to cope with a tsunami. There were also obstacles that hindered a real independent censure on such sensitive facilities. In 2018, Japanese researchers from the Kyushu and Tohoku institutes found that “the threat of nuclear power accidents in Japan has outweighed that of other countries.”
According to the writer, with time, under the public pressure and the threats caused by the nuclear leakage and pollution, some countries had to slow down the construction of further nuclear plants. However, Japan didn’t, why? It’s simple, because it consists of several islands and suffers from a serious shortage of natural energy resources, which forced it to import 96% of its fuel needs in 2011. Unlike wood and copper, coal, which is very abundant in Japan, could have been a safety net, but its impact on the environment forced the country to abandon it, which led to more crises and threatened the national security.
The Miike coal mine, the largest and oldest in the history of Japan, operated until 1997. Its closure caused a collapse in the domestic economy, and urged the country to seek a sustainable alternative, the nuclear power. One kilogram of coal generates 12 kw of electricity, while the same amount of uranium could generate 24 million kw of electricity after being processed in nuclear plants. Here, Letherbarrow acknowledges the importance of the peaceful uses of nuclear power, but warns from the lack of security and safety measures, which could be caused by administrative failure, lack of qualification, or expenditure reductions.
Andrew Letherbarrow has another book about nuclear disasters based on the Chernobyl accident. He visited the town and spent five years there for research and investigation. The book was a best seller after its release.