Who is to blame? - Fukushima 1 year later (Part 8)

This is part 8 of my series of reflections on the year we've had after 3/11 - the day of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown. Here is part 1 if you need to start from the beginning.

This weekend, Prime Minister Noda made a speech about the Fukushima nuclear disaster and stated that no one person can be held directly responsible for the meltdowns, explosions and resulting leak of radiation, and that we all have to "share the pain" in the recovery.

Yes, we will all bear the burdens of recovery. The amount of money required to rebuild after the disaster is expected to go to at least 1 trillion yen ($13 billion US), and surely a huge chunk of that will be public funds. We also have already felt the shared pain in the form of rolling blackouts last summer and possible rate hikes to come this year.

As far as blame being placed, yes I'm sure no one person caused everything. But there is a lot of blame that can be spread around, from the people who underestimated the size of a possible tsunami, geologists who never saw a huge quake like that as being possible, and of course to Tepco itself, for not putting in better preventative measures, despite warnings they had beforehand. Of course, their failure to initiate expensive reinforcements isn't surprising, when you consider the history of nuclear plants around the world and their rate of accidents and a lack of preparedness.

Noda claims we all fell for the idea of the "myth of safety," (anzen shinwa - 安全神話, click here for a great NY Times piece on the subject), and that's at least true. Hell, when I was in 6th grade the first essay I ever wrote was about the safety of nuclear power and its superiority to coal, oil and natural gas. And that was after Chernobyl had already happened.

And it's very true that we, in a way, all had a part in the disaster, because we allowed the plants to continue to be made, we used their power and all sat in our safe little warmly-lit houses, far away from the plants themselves, despite dangers of operating them and the suffering of long-term plant workers (here is a documentary on the subject).

Share the pain? Yes, we will all surely share it for years and decades to come. I only hope Japan and other countries learn from this disaster and the mistakes that lead to it before it happens again.