America's Future 'Green Light' from Nuclear Japan

In a meeting in which Steven Chu, Nobel prize winning physicist and energy secretary, was supposed to help promote currently 'not so socially' thriving nuclear energy to a House panel, the secretary ended up defending nuclear power in light of the recent disasters in Japan. Politico posts:

The panel did not allow him to support Obama's pro-nuclear views and instead forced him to speak of the recent Japanese disasters, possibly forcing him to promote anti-nuclear panic instead. Chu, well spoken and well informed seamed to quell the panels disturbed and distorted views of nuclear energy but possibly not enough to persuade the panel to be in favor of supporting nuclear energy. In only another among countless events of scientific misinformation and bias, it looks like America will remain anti-nuclear for several years to come.

The World Steps Back From Nuclear

While disaster after disaster crashes upon Japan, the world, which among developed nations was decidedly pro nuclear, now takes a step back to re-evaluate. The National Geographic reports:

The disaster in Japan, which threatens to worsen as the country’s officials struggle to contain what is being called the worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl meltdown 25 years ago, is having repercussions on nuclear policy worldwide.

On Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a three-month moratorium on extending the operation periods for its nuclear power plants. Under the moratorium, seven plants that began operating before 1980 will be shut down.

Switzerland also suspended its nuclear plans pending a safety review, and the European Union called for an emergency meeting of energy ministers Tuesday to assess, among other points, the idea of running stress tests on the EU’s 143 nuclear plants.

Many already nuclear European countries have scheduled immediate check-ups for their plants. America faces a slightly different problem. Obama had high hopes for nuclear energy and this disaster is putting his efforts to a screeching halt. Although this disaster can in the end, sadly, be deemed a learning experience to the rest, it has placed many not only cautiously but violently against nuclear energy.

Japan's 50 Unnamed Nuclear Heroes

 As the rest of the world watches through the gaps of shaking hands, fifty heroic Japanese workers stay behind to tend to the highly dangerous and exploding nuclear power plants. Facing full knowledge of their possible instant death due to fires and explosions, or their long term health defects due to overexposure to radiation, they've  nevertheless opted to stay behind and protect their families, their country, and the world from massive amounts of nuclear radiation. The New York Times  reports;

A small crew of technicians, braving radiation and fire, became the only people remaining at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station on Tuesday — and perhaps Japan’s last chance of preventing a broader nuclear catastrophe.

They are the faceless 50, the unnamed operators who stayed behind. They have volunteered, or been assigned, to pump seawater on dangerously exposed nuclear fuel, already thought to be partly melting and spewing radioactive material, to prevent full meltdowns that could throw thousands of tons of radioactive dust high into the air and imperil millions of their compatriots.
They struggled on Tuesday and Wednesday to keep hundreds of gallons of seawater a minute flowing through temporary fire pumps into the three stricken reactors, Nos. 1, 2 and 3. Among the many problems they faced was what appeared to be yet another fire at the plant.
The workers are being asked to make escalating — and perhaps existential — sacrifices that so far are being only implicitly acknowledged: Japan’s Health Ministry said Tuesday it was raising the legal limit on the amount of radiation to which each worker could be exposed, to 250 millisieverts from 100 millisieverts, five times the maximum exposure permitted for American nuclear plant workers.

The reactor operators face extraordinary risks. Tokyo Electric evacuated 750 emergency staff members from the stricken plant on Tuesday, leaving only about 50, when radiation levels soared. By comparison, standard staffing levels at the three active General Electric reactors on the site would be 10 to 12 people apiece including supervisors — an indication that the small crew left behind is barely larger than the contingent on duty on a quiet day.

With extremely low chances of survival, these workers, if they survive, face a lifetime of various health defects from the overexposure. Most likely, many of them knew they were signing on to this mission to die, either short or long term. the immense pressure from the world's eyes is building upon them, as is the pressure from within the power plants themselves. More than the best of luck to these human heroes.