Engineers question meaning of nuclear power in wake of Fukushima crisis

Half a century since the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Engineering was founded, it continues to live on as the university's Department of Systems Innovation, Environment and Energy Systems. But since the ongoing nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant first emerged, what has been going through the minds of members of the first class to enter the department in 1962?

On the evening of April 15, seven men with graying hair sat at a table at a Japanese-style pub in the Shinbashi district of Tokyo for a reunion of the first class to enroll at the University of Tokyo's Department of Nuclear Engineering. Conversation naturally turned to the nuclear accident at the stricken Fukushima power plant.

"I should have been more vocal about the importance of anti-tsunami measures," Michio Yamawaki, now a professor emeritus at University of Tokyo, said with regret. Some of his classmates were abstaining from alcohol in solidarity with those in the Tohoku region, who were hit hardest by the March 11 earthquake, tsunami, and ensuing nuclear disaster, and have been forced to make many sacrifices. Still others were going out of their way to enjoy sake from the Tohoku region to support local businesses.

Most of the 15 members of the University of Tokyo's first class of nuclear engineering students -- including Hiroto Ishida, a former administrative vice minister at the Science and Technology Agency, and Shinzo Saito, a former president of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan (AESJ) -- have, since graduation, been involved in the field of nuclear energy. Of them, two have already passed away.

Yamawaki, now 70, was born in Hiroshima, where he experienced the atomic bombing of the city when he was four years old. His home was located some six kilometers from the hypocenter of the blast, and he remembers clearly what he experienced that day. In a book published by the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF) last year, Yamawaki wrote: "A flash of light suddenly enveloped the room, and after a moment we were overcome by a huge explosive sound and strong blast of air. I felt a huge impact, and the sliding paper screens and doors, and the wooden planks of the verandah were blown away..."

Nuclear power left a strong impression on the young boy: that it was both a demonic weapon that had taken the lives of many people, and an amazing neo-futuristic tool. While in high school, Yamawaki went to a small exhibit on the peaceful use of nuclear power, and saw displays showing the use of nuclear power to generate electricity. He came to feel that he wanted to improve people's lives through the use of nuclear power, and "to show the U.S." what Japan could do.

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