Can We Learn to Live with Nuclear Power?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 1 September 2015
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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?
(Photo: A Czech Power plant. Credit: AP)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC World Service, this is Michael Blasland with the inquiry. |
| 0:03.2 | This week, can we learn to live with nuclear power? |
| 0:12.8 | At 1030 a.m. local time on August the 11th, |
| 0:18.8 | TV images showed the control room in the Sendai number One Nuclear Reactor in Japan. |
| 0:24.0 | A technician in gray overalls and green safety vest did something at a control panel, |
| 0:29.0 | turn to the cameras, and almost smiled. |
| 0:40.0 | That apparently was it. Japan had restarted its first nuclear reactor following the 2011 Fukushima disaster. |
| 0:47.0 | Outside, protesters scuffled with police. |
| 0:55.0 | All Japan's nuclear plants had been switched off after meltdown at the Fukushima plant, |
| 1:00.0 | caused by a tsunami following an earthquake. More than 100,000 people were |
| 1:05.6 | evacuated from the surrounding area. This switch back on will be the first of many, but after one of the most shocking incidents in nuclear powers history, |
| 1:18.0 | will we be able to cope with our fears? |
| 1:22.0 | In other words, our question this week, can we learn to live with nuclear power? |
| 1:27.0 | Part one, radiation is radiation. The earthquake was huge, first of all, and we received the news that nuclear power plants were okay. |
| 1:54.0 | Tatsujiro Suzuki, Vice Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of the Japanese government |
| 1:59.3 | at the time of the Fukushima disaster, which even during the earthquake was thought |
| 2:04.3 | impossible until the earthquake was followed by a tsunami. |
| 2:08.3 | And it looks like the tsunami has engulfed several cities. |
| 2:12.1 | Well seven o'clock at home. |
| 2:14.8 | I saw the news, the nuclear power plants |
| 2:18.1 | in a serious condition. |
| 2:19.2 | So I was, that was very shocking. |
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