17/03/2011

Japan Nuclear Power Plant Crisis

Picture credit: National Land Image Information (Color Aerial Photographs), Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan (taken 1975)

In this week’s programme, Material World examines and explains the science behind the nuclear power plant crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan.

Quentin Cooper talks to Professor Andrew Sherry, Director of the Dalton Nuclear Institute, about the science and engineering of nuclear power stations. Professor Richard Wakeford explains what radiation is and its effects. Professor Geraldine Thomas, Chair in Molecular Pathology, Imperial College London, explains the health effects of exposure to radiation and how it compares to the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Malcolm Grimston, expert on nuclear energy technology and policy from Chatham House discusses what went wrong in Japan and implications and lessons for elsewhere.