Fukushima in review: A complex disaster, a disastrous response. Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists, 68(2), 9-21. doi: 10.1177/0096340214523240.Īn eyewitness account from a a worker at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station about happened there on March 11, 2011, in the immediate wake of a massive earthquake and tsunami that caused three of the station’s reactor cores to melt.įunabashi, Y., & Kitazawa, K. Prologue to catastrophe. Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists, 70(2), 36-41. This paper gives a three-level framework for morally responsible risk communication focusing on procedure, the message, and the effects of risk communication.įujiyoshi, M. It requires not only consideration about a message’s effectiveness, but also about ethical legitimacy. 18(3) 333-346.Ĭommunication about nuclear risks is tricky, especially after Fukushima. Nuclear energy, responsible risk communication and moral emotions: a three level framework. In an effort to rebuild public trust in nuclear power and the Japanese government’s ability to regulate this industry, Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe has ordered his government to intervene in the clean-up of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.įahlquist, Jessica Nihlen and Sabine Roeser. Japan Stepping In to Help Clean Up Atomic Plant. An engineer’s duty sometimes includes protecting others from harm even at the risk of the engineer’s life.įackler, Martin.

Another lesson concerns our ideas of heroism, especially our sense that heroism is sometimes one’s duty. One lesson of Fukushima, one shared with Katrina, concerns the different roles engineers have at different stages in an engineering project (planning, designing, management, and operations. In ways important to engineering ethics, it is much more like Katrina’s destruction of New Orleans than like any nuclear disaster. Yet Fukushima is not just another nuclear disaster. The nuclear disaster that Japan suffered at Fukushima in the months following Mahas been compared with other major nuclear disasters, especially, Three Mile Island (1979) and Chernobyl (1986). Journal of Applied Ethics and Philosophy, 4, 1-10. Three Nuclear Disasters and a Hurricane: Some Reflections on Engineering Ethics. Though many evacuees can now safely return home, public mistrust in the government and scientists who receive public funding are keeping many from returning.ĭavis, M. Over 100,000 people were displaced by the Fukushima disaster. Japan’s Nuclear Crisis: Fukushima’s Legacy of Fear. Focusing on the emergency period of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, this article critically examines epistemological bias that prompted how Japanese top-level nuclear engineers made inaccurate assessments resulting in the prolonged crisis.īrumfiel, Geoff and Ichiko Fuyuno. In reality, the subsequent problems emerging in the Fukushima nuclear crisis went beyond the expectations of the engineers. Nuclear engineers in Japan were trying their best to overcome the situation, believing that their technical knowledge was adequate to understand what went wrong and to mitigate the crisis. The world had a sense of deja vu when a massive earthquake and a 15 m tsunami struck the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station on 11 March 2011.

Understanding disaster: engineering and epistemological bias in the Fukushima nuclear crisis. Engineering Ethicsįor another, excellent bibliography that includes a number of articles on the Fukushima Disaster, see Ethical Issues in Physics, a bibliography compiled in 2012 by Marshall Thomsen.Īmir, Sulfikar and Kohta Juraku. The video tells the story of the citizens, engineers, fireman and soldiers who worked to help prevent the Daiichi nuclear complex from complete meltdown through eyewitness testimony from people working on the front lines and footage from inside the plant. (February 28).Īn excellent, hour-long video that looks at the desperate hours and days after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Fukushima and the Future of Nuclear Energy.Ī collection of articles, an interactive timeline and current developments related to the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster and how other countries are changing their nuclear energy policy after this event. Overview and Continuing Coverage of the Fukushima Disaster

Nuclear reactor meltdown fukushima