As Fukushima memories fade, Japan embraces a nuclear-powered future

Resource-poor Japan was once one of the world’s biggest proponents of nuclear power. Read more at straitstimes.com.

IWAKI, Japan - Mr Takuma Hashimoto was three years old when a massive earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11, 2011, triggering nuclear meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi plant just an hour’s drive from his home.

As the worst nuclear disaster since Chornobyl unfolded, his terrified family was trapped, unable to flee like their neighbours because they could not find gas for their car.

Now 18, Mr Hashimoto wants to become part of Japan’s next generation of nuclear talent.

“I don’t think nuclear power should be treated as something that’s automatically dangerous,” said the engineering student at a technical college in Iwaki, where a monitoring station still keeps check on local radiation levels.

Reuters spoke with Mr Hashimoto, as well as a former crisis management official and a nuclear industry veteran, ahead of the 15th anniversary of the disaster. Their stories illustrate how Japan is pivoting back to a power source it had all but shunned.

Resource-poor Japan was once one of the world’s biggest proponents of nuclear power, which provided roughly 30 per cent of the country’s electricity from 54 reactors.