Japan Faces Nuclear Crisis

As the tragic effects of the devastating 8.9 earthquake continue to unfold in Japan, the damage to multiple nuclear reactors has emerged as a serious health and environmental threat. Japanese officials have been forced to vent radioactive byproducts into the air to avert a potentially catastrophic meltdown of one or more reactors.

Nuclear power is produced by triggering a chain reaction using uranium (in most cases) fuel rods; the reaction occurs underwater, producing steam to spin a turbine and generate electricity. The reactors at the Daiichi plant, located approximately 150 miles north of Tokyo, immediately stopped the chain reaction ( see NYT interactive for more information ) when the earthquake occurred, but a constant supply of water is still needed to keep the fuel rods cool. The earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused the water pumping systems to fail, forcing engineers to pump in seawater in an attempt to cool the fuel rods. Thus far, it appears that a complete meltdown has not occurred, but fuel rods have partially melted. Radiation has been released, but there has been little public information available on how much. Nuclear power plants also keep spent fuel rods in underwater ponds, but not much is known yet about the state of the spent fuel containers, which are housed in the same buildings as the reactors themselves.

Due to uncertainty surrounding the crisis, the Japanese government has ordered an evacuation for people within a 20 kilometer radius of the power plants and distributed iodine tablets – used to protect the thyroid gland from radiation – to nearby populations. The U.S. Navy has ordered a carrier group to move further away after low-level radioactivity was found on some of its helicopter crews, and the French embassy has advised its citizens living in Tokyo, as a precaution to the nuclear situation and after effects of the earthquakes and tsunami, to leave if they do not have to be there.

There is still much that is unknown about the effects of the partial meltdowns, and it will take years to account for the full scope of this disaster. However, the immediate danger is real. With nuclear energy currently supplying the United States with 20 percent of its electricity, and many political leaders calling for an expansion of the industry, it is clear that we need a robust examination, debate, and transparent evaluation of the role of nuclear energy in meeting our nation’s economic, security, environmental, health, and safety goals.