Probably a reaction to the enormous over-reaction that people have been having about nuclear power for decades. People hear the word “radioactive” and freak out like it’s some kind of evil spirit. It gets quite frustrating and tiring.
Fukushima in particular seems to be a touchstone for nuclear paranoia. 18,000 people died in that tsunami and zero of them were caused by the reactor meltdown, but there was a parade of news articles about how the Pacific Ocean was going to become some sort of septic dead zone and the entire coast would have to be evacuated. I recall one breathless prediction of the literal end of humanity. I really want to never hear of it again unless something actually significant happens.
One reactor melts down and they think it’s the end of humanity? Even when you do absolutely everything wrong, as the Soviets did with Chernobyl, it still isn’t the end of humanity. It doesn’t even result in a dead zone; the Chernobyl disaster killed numerous wild animals, but those that can survive there are thriving now that the humans are gone.
I absolutely agree that there was a massive overreaction from it.
That said, there was also a ton of face-saving on Japan’s side as well that manifested in a lot of misinformation coming from them. Essentially, there was a distinct lack of transparency about the scope of the problem, so neighboring countries were justifiably unhappy with how Japan handled things.
Probably a reaction to the enormous over-reaction that people have been having about nuclear power for decades. People hear the word “radioactive” and freak out like it’s some kind of evil spirit. It gets quite frustrating and tiring.
Fukushima in particular seems to be a touchstone for nuclear paranoia. 18,000 people died in that tsunami and zero of them were caused by the reactor meltdown, but there was a parade of news articles about how the Pacific Ocean was going to become some sort of septic dead zone and the entire coast would have to be evacuated. I recall one breathless prediction of the literal end of humanity. I really want to never hear of it again unless something actually significant happens.
One reactor melts down and they think it’s the end of humanity? Even when you do absolutely everything wrong, as the Soviets did with Chernobyl, it still isn’t the end of humanity. It doesn’t even result in a dead zone; the Chernobyl disaster killed numerous wild animals, but those that can survive there are thriving now that the humans are gone.
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I absolutely agree that there was a massive overreaction from it.
That said, there was also a ton of face-saving on Japan’s side as well that manifested in a lot of misinformation coming from them. Essentially, there was a distinct lack of transparency about the scope of the problem, so neighboring countries were justifiably unhappy with how Japan handled things.