I am not trying to downplay the situation that Japan is facing whatsoever. All I’m saying is we must be cautious about how we approach these kinds of situations. I’m extremely irritated by some of the poor journalism going on right now, causing more fear, uncertainty and doubt than is necessary.
In trying times such as these, as human beings we must make certain of the following:
- We must have a solid understanding of the technology and risks involved.
- Compare and contrast the current situation to those experienced in the past.
- Scrutinize the situation and weight the evidence against all possible outcomes.
Nuclear power is still one of the safest ways of providing power, so I don’t want to see us plunge into the dark ages with arms flailing in the air screaming it’s unsafe and we need to go back to coal power.
Also, as it stands right now there is no risk of meltdown. This conclusion has been made by expert scientists and engineers based on the current understanding and knowledge of the safety guards in place at Fukushima Daiichi.
Of course the current situation that is being faced is difficult and certainly is bad, however, it’s more than likely that we won’t have another incident of the same magnitude of Chernobyl on our hands.