Response to John Hinkson and Alan Roberts

I am disappointed at the lack of conviction in both John Hinkson’s editorial ‘Nuclear Contradictions’, and Alan Roberts’ article ‘Fukushima’ in Arena Magazine no. 111. Both authors seem bemused by what occurred at the four Daiichi reactors on 11 March 2011, and neither seems able to spell out the consequences with any confidence. ‘There is no description here or elsewhere’, writes Roberts, ‘of what happened at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant – or indeed what is now happening’ (his emphasis). ‘The problems at Fukushima’, writes Hinkson, ‘do not seem to be the same as at Three Mile Island or Chernobyl’. Also from Hinkson: ‘less dramatic radiation leaks [than at Chernobyl] into the topsoil, the sea, the air and now groundwater are being discovered. Does this matter? Not for some. They regard this as a hiccup for the nuclear industry, a localised problem that will soon go away’.