Nuclear Disaster in Japan: Ethical Dilemmas & Global Impacts - Essay Sample

Introduction

The nuclear disaster in Japan at the Power Plant of Fukushima Daiichi, which is ongoing, has led to severe conflicts with impacts on food safety, the environment, public health, and psychological effects on at large scale in the world (Kermisch, & Taebi, 2017). The emergency of nuclear has led to the rise of ethical debates concerning ethical issues and the impact of health and the global environment resulting from atomic energy. Atomic power is designed to use nuclear fission in generating heat that is converted into multiple energy like electricity. Today most countries are pursuing interests in nuclear power, which is now approximately six percent of the global energy. Nuclear energy reduces the effect of the greenhouse because it produces more electricity than waste gas, thus making it a sustainable source of energy. On the contrary, nuclear energy and wastes are radioactive that result in environmental and public health threats; this paper focuses on the benefits and hazards of nuclear power and utilitarianism.

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Benefits and Hazards of Nuclear Power

The ethical issues in nuclear power aim at comparing the benefits and hazards of nuclear power. Both to the environment and human health. There are both advantages of atomic power impacts on the environment as a result of reducing greenhouse gas emission, in one side, nuclear power is a sustainable source of energy, and in another side, and atomic power emits radioactive wastes which damage the environment and expose a human being to risks of health. Most countries become superpower once they attain the technology of producing nuclear power, which gives them security both internally and globally. But with increased development of nuclear technologies, some nations use it as an advantageous weapon to threaten other countries who will wish to challenge them both politically and economically.

Benefits of Nuclear Power

Nuclear power is of low pollution, making it more beneficial to the crisis of climate because it replaces the hazardous sources of energy (Jenkins et al., 2018). The relative cost of nuclear power is low once the power plant is constructed. On top of the nuclear power plant, nuclear fuel such as uranium is also mined at low cost, which provides maintenance cost and control of waste, and this makes nuclear energy to be cost-competitive. To generate electricity by the use of nuclear reactors is less expensive when compared to creating it from coal, gas, and oil. The nuclear plant provides a stable load of energy, which can work with renewable energy like solar and wind. The production of electricity by the plants can be minimized when during useful solar and wind resources, which can be cranked up during high demand. Thorium is alternative green energy for uranium on nuclear power plants, which also try to limit the overdependence of nuclear power plants on uranium. The availability of this proper nuclear fuel makes it necessary for combining different types of reserves together as a way of cost-competitive in greener energy production.

Nuclear energy is highly sustainable through the use of fusion reactors and breeder reactors (Jenkins et al., 2018). Nuclear fusion led to harnessing energy, but controlling atomic fusion gives out unlimited energy. Nuclear power supports national security and the diplomacy of energy, and for example, the United States maintains its leadership of the world through nuclear technologies. Job opportunities are also created from nuclear power plants, and this is evident by an approximate of half a million jobs that are created by nuclear energy in the United States that contribute to an estimated $60 billion gross domestic product every year. Nuclear power is highly reliable because the plants run twenty-four hours in seven days; their design is able to work over long stretches and get refueled after one and a half to two years.

Hazards of Nuclear Energy

Nuclear accidents are fatal. Major accidents such as Three Miles (level 5), Kysthhtym (level 6), the disaster of Chernobyl (level 7), and the Fukushima disaster (level 7), which is ongoing has happened. The tragedy of Chernobyl that occurred in 1986 emitted large particles of radioactive and gases into the atmosphere that spread through Europe. Besides mutation and death of human beings, plants, and animals, the long-serving effect is the most extended low dose of radiation, which has increased cancer risks to the population of Europe at large. A further study of the World Health Organization on its report to the effect of Chernobyl shows that the disaster will lead to an excess of nine thousand deaths from cancer. The catastrophe of Fukushima was followed by multiple natural calamities, including earthquakes and tsunami. The disaster of Fukushima and Chernobyl attained the same level of accident, emitting radioactive plume worldwide and 100,000 and more tons of contaminated water the ocean of pacific. The disaster of Fukushima has resulted in the same effects of the Chernobyl disaster with an impact on food safety, the environment, psychological effects, and public health across the world.

Impact on residents. Nuclear energy involves mining, enrichment, transportation, as well as disposing of radioactive materials, which has impacted most on the population because nuclear plants are constructed in densely populated regions with the aim of getting enough labor force. Local people who reside near nuclear power plants are at higher risks of health problems and cancer because of long-period exposure to the radioactivity of low level, which against the principles of justice and no maleficence. Nuclear wastes are being stored temporarily by nuclear plants after Yucca Mountain was funded that led to the termination of the repository of nuclear waste, which has increased risks to the adjacent communities and the overall security risks. Right now, no permanent solutions have been implemented for the disposal of nuclear waste.

Fact disclosure is another hazard of nuclear power plants. Prior information and potential risk disclosure through training are the methods which can help to reduce injuries, save lives, and smoothen public panic during nuclear accidents. In contrast, nuclear plants and the government usually downplay when it comes to potential risks, and a good example is the disaster of Fukushima. The Tokyo Electronic Power Company was accused of giving false data and safety risks coverer up. When the tragedy occurred, the Japanese government and the Tokyo Electronic Power Company were misleading and contradicting, and this resulted to psychological effects to the residents as well as across the world (Humber, & Biggs, 2011). Releasing objective and accurate data is the only way of addressing public concerns in an ethical manner.

Violation of safety regulations. The disasters of nuclear power arise as a result of not enforcing and following safety measures and rules at the power stations. For example, the investigation report of 2007 shows that the Tokyo Electronic Power Company admitted providing false data as a way of covering up safety risks during the period of 200 safety checks on nuclear plants, including Fukushima Daiichi between 1977 and 2007 (Humber, & Biggs, 2011). During this period, the Tokyo Electronic Power Company only covered up the potential risks, but it did not correct them as a way of avoiding disrupting nuclear power plant operations. Therefore, confronting nuclear power plants to install safety regulations and prosecuting violations of safety measures to be prioritized across all power plants, as much as the unpunished misconduct programs result in potential risks of nuclear disasters. With 439 reactors across the globe and most of them being twenty years old, regulators in the industry of nuclear power have to implement new approaches to improving the security and safety of nuclear materials. The nuclear plants have to be prepared early to the complicated and unexpected situations such as nuclear accidents and natural disasters resulting from nuclear power.

The Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is the dominating theory in the western world that respects the maximal well-being for the majority of the people. If utilitarianism theory is applied to nuclear power, it raises an important question of whether the nuclear power initiative maximizes the well-being of the majority of the people and whether there are alternative options for accomplishing the same outcomes. The proponents of nuclear power, which include global governments and international organizations, put emphasis on nuclear power as sustainable energy, safe, and clean, thus giving the ways of developing it with a view of replacing energy from fossil fuel. They partake in accidents as isolated cases, which should not hinder human beings from using nuclear power, and they view that there was an overreaction of the public concerning the damaging effects caused by nuclear power accidents. Therefore, the government usually puts assurance on the society that nuclear power is safe and clean and emphasizes that the safety of nuclear power has significantly improved throughout the past decades. These governments also argue that the nuclear reactions that troubled Fukushima was the 1970s technologies, which had concerns about safety measures before the occurrence of the accident.

The opponents of nuclear power, which include organizations like IPPNW and Greenpeace, question nuclear energy, whether it is spotless (Humber, & Biggs, 2011). Despite not producing greenhouse gases, reactors of nuclear emit wastes during radioactive ore mining, refining, and transporting of both wastes and fuel to different destinations whose impact is significant and irreversible. The 439 nuclear reactors emit an intermediate and low level of radioactive to an approximate of 130,000 cubic meters, and 13,000 tons of highly radioactive wastes (Humber, & Biggs, 2011). Nuclear wastes will continue to remain past radioactive hundreds of thousand years now that there are no permanent measures of disposing of nuclear waste. During the incidents of fatal accidents, millions of people will be affected, in addition, as both technological and natural disasters increase their links with nuclear power, complex effects will compound the world into crisis. The world communities could be unprepared if prior measures are not implemented now because the possibility of damages could outweigh their benefits. Therefore, before solving such issues, it is unethical to develop nuclear activities. Thus the industry of nuclear power has to minimize environmental impact, improve the safety of nuclear reactors, and take stringent measures on both the existing and new nuclear power activities.

Based on the principle of utilitarianism, five proposed changes are made. First, improving safety measures of nuclear technologies as a way of minimizing both global health and environmental harm through implementing strict, stringent checks of safety and reviewing standards and through decommissioning of nuclear plants which are aging and those that are unable to address safety standards. Second, enforcement of safety regulations as a way of assuring full compliance, shutting down nuclear plants with identifiable risks of safety, and holding the responsible persons to be liable. Third, mandating the timely sharing of credible, transparent, and accurate data with the public as a measure of reducing radiation emergency damages and maintaining public confidence and trust. Fourth, enhancing global corporation among international organizations, governments, and the nuclear industry on radiation monitoring, law enforcement, regulations, and follow-up on the affected population by nuclear power accidents. Fin...