The Hill News

According to news reports, the latest earthquake pushed Japan 13 feet closer to the United States. On an Earth that charts movement in millimeters, not yards, that is an amazing feat.  

Still, America is going on with its life strangely disassociated from the immense catastrophe that has befallen our closest ally in that part of Asia. The death toll from the tsunami is but one part of the horrific story now being played out in Japan. The other part of the story, of course, is what is going on with its battle with its own nuclear reactors.

Japan has a particularly tragic history with radioactive death, being the only recipient of nuclear weapons in warfare. Despite that history, Japan has for decades embraced nuclear energy, mostly because it didn’t have any real choice. In a land that has few natural resources to produce the electricity that is essential to live in the modern world, the Japanese embraced nuclear energy as the best way to be energ! y-independent.

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