Nuclear energy: A baby in bath water

English.news.cn   2011-03-22 22:45:27

TOKYO, March 22 (Xinhua) -- The crisis surrounding Japan's overheating Fukushima nuclear power plant has triggered mounting fears over nuclear safety worldwide. However, nuclear energy, which is clean and efficient, should not be abandoned, but proceeded with using caution.

Friday's earthquake and ensuing tsunami knocked out the cooling systems of the Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima in northeastern Japan, leaving the country scrambling to control heavy radiation caused by the overheating of three reactors.

Japan's nuclear catastrophe has provided a cautionary tale for the world's major nuclear countries, prompting many to review safety measures at their reactors or scrap plans for new plants.

France, the world's second largest nuclear energy producer, will launch a series of checks to assess the safety of its reactors. "The Fukushima disaster reminds us of the requirement of improving the professional management of our industrial risks," French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said.

China, a close neighbor of Japan, decided Wednesday to suspend the approval process for new nuclear power stations so that safety standards can be revised, and ordered safety checks for existing plants.

In Moscow, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered a review of the future of Russia's atomic energy sector, but said Russia did not have atomic power stations built on earthquake fault lines and had no plans to build them there.

Though the world has every reason to worry, giving up is not an option. Instead, we learn from our own mistakes, correct them and march forward.

For example, two major nuclear accidents, the 1979 Three Mile Island accident and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, have not hampered the world's efforts to develop nuclear power, but encouraged countries to come up with better technology and regulations to fend off nuclear disaster.

Clearly, risk exists in the exploration and use of almost every type of energy on this planet. Oil, the most important energy in today's world, may remind us of the latest oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, one of the worst oil pollution accidents in human history that will probably take the environment decades to recover from. Coal, another critical source of energy, is reportedly causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of mining workers every year in underground operations.

Nuclear power, which is highly efficient, may imperil public health with radioactive leaks only under certain extreme conditions, such as the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan's northeast.

Meanwhile, we can't afford to ignore the fact that nuclear energy has played an important role in offsetting energy shortages facing human society for decades, and has been accepted by an increasing number of countries worldwide. More than 60 countries are currently considering nuclear power plans, among which 10 to 25 will have their first nuclear power stations built by 2030.

We learned lessons from plane crashes, and then kept on flying; from space shuttle explosions, and then advanced our space adventures; and from nuclear accidents, and then generated more clean energy.

After Japan's nuclear crisis, human beings as a whole are bound to learn a hard lesson, and further sharpen the technology and security schemes of nuclear development. After all, throwing out the baby with the bath water is not wise.

Editor: yan

(source:xinhua)
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