Fukushima, Chernobyl: how two accidents reshaped global energy policy

• Fukushima – 15 years since March 11, 2011 (no deaths related to radiation)
• Chernobyl – 40 years since April 26, 1986 (the only civilian nuclear accident that resulted in direct casualties – approximately 8.000 deaths estimated)

Restoring an informed understanding of nuclear energy

As representatives of citizens who benefit from nuclear energy, the contributors to Face au Nucléaire remind us that this energy must be understood and perceived accurately by the population in order to fully contribute to climate and environmental issues.

The Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents had an exceptional and unique impact on world public opinion, lastingly influencing energy policies and their role in responding to or exacerbating the geopolitical and environmental issues associated with them.

These anniversaries allow us to honor the victims, recall the circumstances of these accidents, and underscore the importance of the safety principles and measures developed since then. The aim of this initiative is to contribute to a rigorous, fact-based understanding, without minimizing or exaggerating the events.

Disinformation and energy consequences

Beyond the human, environmental and technical lessons learned, these two accidents also illustrate the major impact that scientific and technical misinformation can have on the course of the world.

For 40 years in the case of Chernobyl and 15 years in the case of Fukushima, the erroneous representations associated with the exploitation of these disasters have contributed to immeasurable losses of opportunity for the world's population:

• Delay in responding to climate change
• Health and environmental impact of alternatives, particularly fossil fuels
• Prosperity and strengthening of authoritarian regimes endowed with global oil and gas reserves
• Impoverishment of non-oil/gas economies

Each anniversary thus becomes a moment when an avalanche of inaccurate perceptions, even myths, resurface in the public debate and reinforce public distrust. The result, forty years later, is a still very strong dependence on gas and oil, a direct exposure to, and contribution to, current tragedies and tensions.

Chernobyl: an accident with global industrial consequences

The 1986 accident remains the only nuclear power plant accident that resulted in direct casualties.

It is not the only industrial accident to have led to the establishment of an exclusion zone; this one has a radius of 10km around the site and the controlled zone does not exceed 30km; there have been no monstrous genetic deformities due to radioactivity; accidental irradiation is not contagious; the emitted radioactivity has not been responsible for "millions of cancers," and even less so "today"; the circumstances of the accident are not reproducible in current nuclear power plants; the health effects of a nuclear accident, however serious, cannot exceed the local scale…

Beyond the human tragedy, the consequences of this disinformation were major:

• Sustained slowdown in global nuclear development
• Abandonment of advanced technological programs, notably fourth-generation reactors, the basis of circular nuclear energy
• Non-decarbonization of global electricity systems (excluding nuclear and hydroelectric power, which are already low-carbon)
• Maintaining an increased dependence on coal, oil and gas.

Fukushima: When fear becomes a risk factor

The Fukushima accident in 2011 caused no radiation-related deaths. However, the massive and prolonged evacuation decided upon amid widespread concern resulted in approximately 2.200 deaths, while the earthquake and tsunami had already claimed more than 18.000 lives.

Neither the water quality nor the marine biodiversity of the Pacific Ocean was impacted by radioactivity, the crops around the power plant were not rendered unfit for consumption, the shutdown of Japanese nuclear power plants had major health impacts on the health of the Japanese due to the use of coal instead of nuclear power, the circumstances of the Fukushima accident could not be repeated in France.

This event led to:

• The halt in the momentum of the global nuclear revival and the political closure of operational reactors
• A loss of industrial and academic skills
• Sustained underinvestment in an energy source that remains essential to the fight against climate change.

A contribution to the public debate

Through this editorial series, Face au Nucléaire aims to provide the media, decision-makers and citizens with factual elements to fuel informed reflection on nuclear energy, its real risks and its potential role in addressing contemporary climate challenges.

The objective: to contribute, on its own scale, to information based on scientific knowledge and to a better-informed public debate.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.