Can We Learn to Live with Nuclear Power?
Analysis
BBC
4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 28 September 2015
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Fukushima disaster made many people oppose nuclear power. Michael Blastland asks what it would take to change their minds. In 2011, following a devastating tsunami, Japan's Fukushima nuclear power station went into meltdown, leaking radiation. It was the most serious nuclear accident since Chernobyl. It appeared to send the nuclear power industry into retreat - and not just in Japan. Other nations had second thoughts too. Germany decided to phase out its nuclear reactors altogether. But now Japan has resumed nuclear power generation. At the heart of the 'nuclear wobble' of 2011 is the question of risk. Attitudes to, and understanding of, risk vary surprisingly between nations and cultures. But after one of the most shocking incidents in nuclear power's history, will we be able to cope with our fears? In other words, can we learn to live with nuclear power? Producers: Ruth Alexander and Smita Patel.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The government recently agreed to provide £2 billion in loans for a new nuclear power station, |
| 0:05.2 | but many, including Jeremy Corbyn, remain concerned about the risks of the technology. |
| 0:10.4 | Michael Blaslin asks what underlines our attitudes towards nuclear power around the world. |
| 0:16.0 | At 1030 local time on August the 11th, TV images in Japan showed the control room in the Sendai Number One nuclear reactor. |
| 0:25.0 | A technician in grey overalls and green safety vest did something or other as a control panel turned and almost smiled. That apparently was it. Japan had |
| 0:36.6 | restarted its first nuclear reactor after the 2011 for kashima disaster. |
| 0:42.1 | Outside, protesters scuffled with police. |
| 0:47.0 | Nuclear power provokes visceral reactions. |
| 0:52.0 | In the UK, 11 sites have been identified for new reactors. |
| 0:55.9 | About time, some say, but after Fukushima, others are appalled. |
| 1:05.0 | Instinct as well as practicality is in play. Put aside the technical and financial questions about energy supply and demand, |
| 1:11.0 | risk, radioactivity, storage of waste decommissioning, this week in analysis, |
| 1:17.0 | how nuclear is also the staff of shivers and dreams. How do you feel when I say meltdown? |
| 1:28.0 | The earthquake was huge. |
| 1:30.0 | The earthquake was huge, first of all, and we deceived the news that nuclear power plants were okay. |
| 1:39.0 | Tatsujiro Suzuki was vice chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of the Japanese government |
| 1:44.8 | at the time of the Fukushima disaster, which even during the earthquake was thought impossible, |
| 1:50.5 | until the tsunami. And it looks like the tsunami has engulfed several cities. |
| 1:56.0 | I got home about 7 o'clock and I saw the news, |
| 2:00.0 | the nuclear power plants in a serious condition. That was very shocking. |
| 2:04.4 | The powerful explosion has destroyed a building at a nuclear power station in Japan. |
| 2:09.2 | Immediately I thought the Trem-Mere Island accident was in my mind. |
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