The Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Disaster and the Future of Renewable Energy

By Naoto Kan and Brett de Bary

In a speech delivered in Japanese at Cornell University, Naoto Kan describes the harrowing days after a cataclysmic earthquake and tsunami led to the meltdown of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. In vivid language, he tells how he struggled with the possibility that tens of millions of people would need to be evacuated.

Cornell Global Perspectives is an imprint of Cornell University’s Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. The works examine critical global challenges, often from an interdisciplinary perspective, and are intended for a non-specialist audience. The Distinguished Speaker series presents edited transcripts of talks delivered at Cornell, both in the original language and in translation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cornell Global Perspectives
• Release date: Jan 15, 2018
• ISBN: 9781501726958

Naoto Kan

Naoto Kan is the former Prime Minister of Japan. He is an adviser on renewable energy for Japan's Technical Committee on Renewable Energy.

Book preview

IT HAS NOW BEEN SIX YEARS since the accident at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant. A year and a half after its occurrence, I published the book, My Nuclear Nightmare: Leading Japan Through the Fukushima Disaster to a Nuclear-Free Future, based on my experience as Prime Minister of Japan at the time of the accident. The English translation of this book has just been published by Cornell University Press and I am deeply grateful. The book offers an account of the situations I faced at the time of the accident, focusing especially on what I confronted during the week that began on March 11, 2011. I would be very pleased if you find my account of what actually happened during this time instructive.

The Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami

The Great East Japan Earthquake erupted without any warning at 2:46 in the afternoon of March 11, 2011. At that moment, I was attending a meeting of the Audit Committee in our Diet’s [Parliament’s] Upper House. No sooner had the committee chair announced the recess of the session than I raced to the Crisis Management Center in the Prime Minister’s offi ce complex beside the Diet Building. There, reports about the earthquake and tsunami were pouring in in rapid succession. According to these initial reports, all nuclear power plants in areas where the earthquake had occurred had been shut down successfully.

In nuclear power plants, control rods can be automatically inserted between the fuel rods to halt a nuclear fission chain reaction. However, if earthquake damage makes it impossible to insert these rods, there is no way of halting the reaction and a meltdown will occur.

How the accident at Fukushima Daiichi occurred

Despite initial reassurances, about one hour after the earthquake we received another report which announced that the tsunami that followed the earthquake had disabled not only the electrical generators outside the Fukushima Daiichi plant, but also the diesel-fueled equipment intended for emergency back-up use. This meant there was a total loss of power at the plant.