The discovery, on Sunday, of two bodies at the tsunami-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in Japan is illustrative of the tragedy that has befallen the nation. They have been identified as those of two employees of the power station, who had been missing since the tidal waves, induced by an earthquake that measured over 9.5 on the Richter scale, devastated a vast area, including the nuclear plant. On the same day, Japan admitted that its second attempt to plug the leak of contaminated water with high levels of radiation that flowed into the Pacific Ocean posing threat to aquatic and human life had failed. The attempt saw the engineers using a huge quantity of sawdust, shredded newspaper and an absorbent powder to stop the leak. Now they admit that it would take several months before the stricken reactors can be declared safe.
Though Japan is famous for its scrupulous practice of safety standards in everything they do, it is indeed doubtful whether the Tokyo Electric Power Company that owns the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station had any plan in place to deal with a tsunami of the kind that swept northern Japan on March 11. From all the available accounts, it is, at best, a trial and error method that the company has been employing so far. Worse, it has also not been forthcoming on the levels of radiation the plant has been emitting and its possible effect on public health. If anything, it is a pointer to the failure of the company to deal with a situation, which is comparable only to the Chernobyl disaster that occurred in what is now Ukraine in 1986. As a result, the demand for nationalising the company has been gaining ground.
The number of protesters demanding permanent closure of the Fukushima Daiichi plant outside the company’s Tokyo headquarters has been growing with each passing day. This should be seen against the backdrop that the Japanese seldom protest. Though the government had indicated that it might close down the plant after it had been declared safe, it is yet to make a formal declaration to that effect. Given the present mood in Japan, which knows how long-lasting the effects of nuclear radiation are since those days Nagasaki and Hiroshima was bombed, no other step seems logical. But for a country which depends on nuclear plants for 30 per cent of its energy needs, it will definitely be a painful, though inevitable, decision.