The wrong reaction

摘要

SNUGGLED ANID lush fields and forests, Namie was doomed by its proximity to the local power plant. In 2011 the town's 21,000 residents were ordered to evacuate after a tsunami overwhelmed the Fuku-shima nuclear facility 4km away. Soon after, all 54 reactors in Japan were shut down amid safety fears, winking out nearly 50 gigawatts of generating capacity. A new paper* argues that that decision may have cost far more lives than the initial disaster. The Fukushima accident led to a surge in imports of coal, gas and oil. In the four years after the meltdown, the share of generation from fossil fuels leapt from 62% to 88%. Nuclear power, which once produced over 30% of Japan's electricity, fell to zero. The result, say three academics, was a sharp spike in electricity prices.