Beyond Fukushima: Disasters, Nuclear Energy, and Energy Law

Abstract

Fukushima changed everything.That, at least, was a popular view espoused after the disaster of March 11, 2011-in the press, by the talking heads in the international media, and across the blogosphere. 1A nuclear meltdown in such a densely populated, welldeveloped nation could scarcely do anything less than utterly transform how nuclear energy would be seen, used, and not used for years to come.That was the immediate reaction.As we inch away in time from the epicenter of the nuclear crisis at Fukushima Daiichi, however, the picture has become less stark than it often was painted in the days and weeks after the earthquake sounded, the tsunami struck, and a series of misjudgments, miscalculations, and chain reactions led to a partial meltdown of the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.