nuclear

Today is the 68^th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and three days later, it will be Nagasaki's 68^th anniversary.

I’ve been to ground-zero in Hiroshima and talked to a survivor of the blast during my solo trip touring west Japan in 2009. It left an indelible mark on me. At that time, I was traveling from the west end of Japan (starting from Kagoshima), thus I visited Nagasaki first and then Hiroshima.

After seeing, through photos and narratives, and understanding how devastating a nuclear catastrophe can be, it is incomprehensible that many (still) do not take the nuclear threat seriously. I used to be a supporter of using nuclear power to generate energy, but I changed my stand after several incidents, namely the still unresolved Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster and the recent anti-nuclear protests in Taiwan against its latest yet-to-be operational nuclear plant. 

There are many non-polluting and nonhazardous ways of generating energy. Mother Earth is volatile enough with her volcanic activities and tectonic plate movements. We do not need to create more environmental crisis/problems on top of the ones we are facing now. Until we can treat nuclear waste produced from nuclear reactors/plants effectively, safely and cheaply, we should not assume nuclear energy is CLEAN and CHEAP. What we are doing right now is delaying the consequences and risks of not disposing nuclear waste to future generations. 

We should encourage the exploration and commercialization of sustainable energy sources. However, in my opinion, we should concentrate our effort in promoting energy conservation instead. We should stop using so much energy for non-productive tasks. We should discourage kids, teenagers and everyone else from being too dependent on their electronic gadgets. Only by limiting our consumption of energy, can we afford to not have (that many) nuclear reactors.