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Fukushima: The Story of a Nuclear Disaster by Susan Q. Stranahan, David Lochbaum, Edwin Lyman
author_d_r_oestreicher's review against another edition
4.0
The sky is falling. The sky is falling.
Fukushima by Union of Concerned Scientists is an hour-by-hour recap of the 2011 disaster at the Daiichi nuclear power installation in Japan. This disaster joins Three Mile Island (1978) in Pennsylvania and Chernobyl (1986) in Russia as one the three largest nuclear disasters.
The book has a lot of good information, if you can wade through the repetitive whining.
For more: http://1book42day.blogspot.com/2014/04/fukushima-by-union-of-concern-scientists.html
Fukushima by Union of Concerned Scientists is an hour-by-hour recap of the 2011 disaster at the Daiichi nuclear power installation in Japan. This disaster joins Three Mile Island (1978) in Pennsylvania and Chernobyl (1986) in Russia as one the three largest nuclear disasters.
The book has a lot of good information, if you can wade through the repetitive whining.
For more: http://1book42day.blogspot.com/2014/04/fukushima-by-union-of-concern-scientists.html
philodora's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.0
mark_lm's review against another edition
2.0
The Book-list review says that this book is "Thriller-like". It isn't. The first 20% of the book which recounts the facts of the story certainly holds one's attention, but the book is published by the Union of Concerned Scientists and it has an ax to grind with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, who get worked over pretty well here. As a member of the UCS, I must say that I support their view point, it just can be a little dull. There is extensive detailed description of various committee meetings and there is considerable repetition. Most times that the NRC's RASCAL model is mentioned, it is also stated that it was only good to 50 miles out. By the middle of the book, I felt that I could pose as a RASCAL model expert; if anyone mentioned it, I would say, "please!..everyone knows that it is only good to 50 miles".
heidim's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting book but occasionally gets bogged down with technical details. Gives a lot of alarming information about the close link between the industry and its regulators which has led to increased risks for the public in case of an emergency at a nuclear facility.
xxstefaniereadsxx's review against another edition
dark
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Usually, when I read a disaster book, I spend a lot of time shaking my head in disbelief of decisions that were made that contributed to the disaster. I know they were not expecting a huge earthquake and a huge tsunami, but some of the decisions that were made caused this nuclear disaster to be so much worse than it might have been. I have watched a few documentaries and read several articles about Fukishima and the pollution and devastation for the people living in the surrounding area, and this book was very eye opening. It made me extremely uncomfortable, as I live in between two nuclear plants. There is one 20ish miles to the north of me and 20ish miles to the south. I wonder how much radiation we are actually exposed to and how many things they cover up at these plants that the public should know about. What poor decisions are they making that could result in something like this or another Chernobyl level incident. I shudder to think.
fo_leyr's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
3.0
While the book was well researched and interesting, it was really focused on the United States more than Fukushima itself and that wasn't really what I expected or wanted. A better title for this book would be "Fukushima: How Can We Make This About America?".
What really ground my gears was that while the book was about Fukushima, the core of the subject explored was how Fukushima Daiichi impacted American Nuclear regulatory frameworks... It wasn't about the people of Fukushima and their experience of the situation or even the Japanese perspective of the situation.
So like I said, I was mislead about the subject really. That being said, it is still an interesting and eye opening read and I would recommend the book...
What really ground my gears was that while the book was about Fukushima, the core of the subject explored was how Fukushima Daiichi impacted American Nuclear regulatory frameworks... It wasn't about the people of Fukushima and their experience of the situation or even the Japanese perspective of the situation.
So like I said, I was mislead about the subject really. That being said, it is still an interesting and eye opening read and I would recommend the book...
bo_manson's review against another edition
4.0
Very interesting book about the recent nuclear disaster happened in Japan. Nuclear power plant has been touted one of the safest technology available. With all procedures and safety measure etc. Well, that’s before I read the book. The Fukushima disaster begin with an earthquake large enough that the building can’t withstand the impact. During the incident in Japan, the Japan’s government took so much time to acknowledge what’s actually happened in Fukushima nuclear plant. At the plant, the worker are at danger of overexposure to the radioactive that begin to release. Some necessary action badly needed to contain the mess but they need to wait for the approval. Again, the approval come late. Not to mention the information fed to the citizen are different from what is actually happening at the plant. Those who have internet will find that it was more severe that what the government told on TV. There are some issue of under-trained team member to deal with this matter. The evacuation taken places and the distance is getting further and further. Later on, the evacuee can return to their home but everything has changed. This book should stop at Chapter 8. Chapter 9 onward, there are drama after drama whether the same thing could happen in the US. But in nuclear industry, all are the same, the attitude of “It can’t happen here”.
seekateread's review against another edition
2.0
This book is not actually about Fukushima, and I think that's its biggest issue. Though the first half of the book does provide detailed accounts of what was occurring at the Fukushima plant, highlighting issues faced both internally and politically, it does not provide much context. The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster did not occur within a bubble, so the pointed lack of information provided in regards to how the disaster had otherwise impacted the country was odd. For example, multiple complaints were made about the poor communication that was occurring, but no mention was given to explain if this was partially because of a lack of electricity. There was mention of difficulty obtaining materials, but no discussion about how hard it was to get items from Point A to Point B due to road damage. This made the first portion of the book feel as if it was critiquing without understanding.
As the book progresses we get to what the authors actually wanted to write about, which was the insufficiency of nuclear regulators. Though I actually agree with several complaints made in this section, it was not the book that I signed up to read. I may have been able to overlook this, though, if the text had felt more researched and less like a teenager throwing a tantrum. Instead, blanket statements were made, with very little supporting research provided. Even in instances where a quote would have sufficed (such as the multiple times the authors state that public confidence was lost), no effort was put forth to obtain this. Again, context was left out of most arguments made, and many of the complaints just felt like the authors had never been employed in a mature workplace (odd, given the authors of the text). At one point, they complained that a conference call yielded ideas that further research proved to be irrelevant....the point of a conference call is to discuss potential concerns, and then research them elsewhere to determine if they are legitimate issues, so this seemed like an odd complaint to make.
Overall, this was a partially well-researched book (they were very aware of regulatory limitations) but not a well-presented one. Due to its stated biases, it felt like we were only given half a story (which we were), and had me questioning what parts of the story were left out in favor of partisan reporting.
As the book progresses we get to what the authors actually wanted to write about, which was the insufficiency of nuclear regulators. Though I actually agree with several complaints made in this section, it was not the book that I signed up to read. I may have been able to overlook this, though, if the text had felt more researched and less like a teenager throwing a tantrum. Instead, blanket statements were made, with very little supporting research provided. Even in instances where a quote would have sufficed (such as the multiple times the authors state that public confidence was lost), no effort was put forth to obtain this. Again, context was left out of most arguments made, and many of the complaints just felt like the authors had never been employed in a mature workplace (odd, given the authors of the text). At one point, they complained that a conference call yielded ideas that further research proved to be irrelevant....the point of a conference call is to discuss potential concerns, and then research them elsewhere to determine if they are legitimate issues, so this seemed like an odd complaint to make.
Overall, this was a partially well-researched book (they were very aware of regulatory limitations) but not a well-presented one. Due to its stated biases, it felt like we were only given half a story (which we were), and had me questioning what parts of the story were left out in favor of partisan reporting.
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