World watches nuke crisis in quake-hit Japan

The world is still nervously watching Japan's crisis management of its quake-hit nuke plants. Nuclear leaks are not unprecedented in Japan, but past accidents happened without catastrophic complications, like dislocation as well as devastation caused by earthquake and tsunami. As indisputable records have shown, nuclear leaks happened in Japan even when the plants were not hit by earthquake or any other natural forces. This is Lesson No.1 for us to learn from the Japanese dossier. There are 56 operational nuclear plants in Japan providing about 30% of the energy need for the densely-populated Northeast Asian nation. Objectively, Japan lacks natural sources of energy, such as oil, but it is a fairly highly industrialised economy as well as automated society. As such , domestic nuclear-generated energy is considered to be able to cut its dependency on foreign oil and gas , whose supply as well as delivery is subject to more unpredictable factors of global instability. Seen within this context, Japan's decision to turn to nuclear power as a source of supply of alternative energy was not totally thoughtless or irrational although, given its history of catastrophes, it is fairly risky.

Nuclear plants in disaster-hit Japan in danger