The foreseeability of nuclear disasters

Warnings about the possibilty of a disaster at Fukushima were already issued no less than 16 years ago.

Jinzaburo Takagi (Japan, RLA 1997) wrote a report on emergency measures for nuclear power plants after the huge earthquake in the Kobe region in 1995. He pointed out that the safety measures in place were insufficient in case of strong earthquakes and criticized that discussions about such worst case scenarios were dismissed as “inappropriate” despite the Kobe earthquake. Today his report seems like a sad prediction.

Jinzaburo Takagi was also referred to in this German ZEIT-article by philosopher Kenichi Mishima who explains why the anti-nuclear movement in Japan still doesn’t have much impact even after the Fukushima catastrophe. He identifies the corrupt, yet legal silencing policy and the immense advertisting campaigns of the nuclear lobby as the reason why warning voices against nuclear power plants have gone and still go practically unheard.