http://siloeke.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] siloeke.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] kareina 2011-03-19 12:09 am (UTC)

Largely it's in the news because the earthquakes Japan damaged a number of their reactors, and then the tsunami knocked out a significant portion of their backup safety-measures. It's difficult to ascertain exactly what the facts are since the media is being ridiculous about it (I believe the word 'apocalypse' was used), but there has been partial meltdown in some of the reactor cores. There is an exclusion zone and so far it doesn't seem that too many people were exposed to any harmful amounts of radiation, other than those workers who remained behind to try to keep the reactors under control. These people are for the large part older technicians who already had children, so that any effects the radiation exposure may have on them are unlikely to be seen in their lifetime- however, there is still the risk of something going seriously wrong.

Obviously this event has reignited debate over the safety (or otherwise) of nuclear power, but neither side is really willing to be completely rational about it.

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