Analysis: Nuclear power growth at risk if Japan plant leaks

Analysis: Nuclear power growth at risk if Japan plant leaks latest news update,Analysis: Nuclear power growth at risk if Japan plant leaks;The growing risk of a significant radiation leak at two Japanese nuclear power plants following Friday's earthquake and tsunami threatens to hurt an industry that has enjoyed a rebirth since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 and the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.On Friday, nuclear power advocates and environmentalists staked out familiar ground over the incident. But a wider public debate may be ignited if a major radiation leak occurs in Japan, said Paul Patterson, an energy analyst with consultants Glenrock Associates in New York.That debate has been largely muted since the 1980s when rock concerts were held to galvanize opposition to nuclear power after the Three Mile Island incident in Pennsylvania and the popular movie "The China Syndrome," that raised awareness of the dangers of a nuclear reactor meltdown."The severity of what happens is what is important," Patterson said of the impact of the Japanese incident.If there is a substantial radioactive release, there could even be questions about whether it could travel on the Pacific jet stream to the U.S. West Coast."It is serious and it could lead to a meltdown," said Mark Hibbs, a nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.Analysis: Nuclear power growth at risk if Japan plant leaks "And what we're seeing, barring any information from the Japanese that they have it under control, is that we're headed in that direction."But Naoto Sekimura of the University of Tokyo, said that a major radioactive disaster was not likely.An 8.9-magnitude earthquake centered in northern Japan triggered a series of events at two Tokyo Electric Power Co (9501.T) plants that created conditions for a radioactive leak because there wasn't electric power to circulate cooling water over superheated uranium fuel rods.The two TEPCO plants, the Daiichi plant and the Daini plant are around 40 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake that led to a tsunami and probably killed more than 1,000.
Analysis: Nuclear power growth at risk if Japan plant leaks

Analysis: Nuclear power growth at risk if Japan plant leaks