The 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Accident - How and Why It Happened

摘要

In March 2011 the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan was hit by an earthquake and a tsunami that resulted in the release of significant amounts of radioactive material. Although the radiation release didn't result in any direct loss of human life, the accident was sufficient to suspend nuclear programmes in a number of countries, including Germany, which made the decision to shut down its fleet and not build new reactors. In the UK, where a renaissance in nuclear power had been touted for some years and looked to be materialising, the effect was to see an already tortuous process grind to a halt. Now, four years on, construction has begun at Hinkley Point C, the first new nuclear power station in the country since Sizewell B began generating in the mid-1990s. But the reactor builders are clear that there is no renaissance - rather, a promising future for an industry that had seemed to be in decline.