Saturday 24 March 2012

NUCLEAR SAFETY

The Jakarta Post

SPOTLIGHT ON NUCLEAR SAFETY BIGGER THAN EVER

Marc Lim (The Straits Times)

The Jakarta Post, March 24, 2012

More than 50 world leaders will gather in South Korea over the next few days ahead of Monday's two-day Nuclear Security Summit.

But unlike the circumstances surrounding the inaugural meeting in 2010 - the aim of which was to highlight the seriousness of nuclear terrorism threats and call for a unified effort to reduce them - the Seoul gathering comes at a time when concerns about another form of nuclear threat are the highest they have ever been.

Scenes of a spewing Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant still haunt many, none more so than the 100,000 people who were displaced from their homes as a result of the triple meltdown at the facility. The disaster led to a wake-up call worldwide, with governments calling for a relook into the safety systems at such facilities.

A year on, the effects of the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986 can still be felt.

In India, mass protests and hunger strikes were staged against proposed plants already under construction. A survey conducted by the Japan Association for Public Opinion Research, released this week, revealed that 80 per cent of Japanese want to phase out the country's reliance on nuclear power, before eventually eliminating it.

(...) [artículo aquí]

No comments: