Questions About Japan’s Energy Policy in Tsunami’s Wake

The Japanese government has called a nuclear power emergency and evacuated nearly 200,000 people from the area surrounding two nuclear reactors as excessive radiation levels have been reported in the wake of a breakdown following Friday’s earthquake. Japan has 55 reactors, which provide about one third of its total electricity, making it the world’s third largest atomic energy user. This is the third time an earthquake has led to an accident at one of the country’s nuclear plants in the past five years. Frank N. Von Hippel, co-director of the Program on Science and Global Security at Princeton University and former adviser to the Clinton administration on nuclear arms and nuclear energy. He looks at the current and future plans for Japan and how they may have changed; the country had plans to increase its energy from nuclear plants to 50 percent in the next six years.