Fukushima: Is Nuclear Power Safe?

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Horizon, 2011-2012 Episode 6 of 15

Duration: 1 hour

Six months after the explosions at the Fukushima nuclear plant and the release of radiation there, Professor Jim Al-Khalili sets out to discover whether nuclear power is safe.

He begins in Japan, where he meets some of the tens of thousands of people who have been evacuated from the exclusion zone. He travels to an abandoned village just outside the zone to witness a nuclear clean-up operation.

Jim draws on the latest scientific findings from Japan and from the previous explosion at Chernobyl to understand how dangerous the release of radiation is likely to be and what that means for our trust in nuclear power.

  • Fukushima Prefecture

    Fukushima Prefecture

    Jim Al-Khalili looking at the devastation caused by the 2011 Japanese tsunami in the Fukushima Prefecture.

  • Institut Laue-Langevin

    Institut Laue-Langevin

    Experimental reactor for transmutating (or 'transforming') nuclear waste at Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble.

    Institut Laue-Langevin

Credits

Series Editor
Aidan Laverty
Presenter
Jim Al-Khalili
Director
Annabel Gillings
Producer
Annabel Gillings

Broadcasts

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