Most research on Fukushima has been directed at technical and epidemiological aspects; yet the ways in which emerging nuclear powers such as India have responded to the meltdown is inadequate. This article investigates (1) the Fukushima meltdown as an epitome of risk associated with nuclear energy to understand what role this disaster has played in the Indian nuclear energy policy; and (2) whether the Indian nuclear authority has renewed its effort to shape the public mind in favor of nuclear safety in the wake of a deadly nuclear disaster in Fukushima. I use content analysis of statements made by nuclear personnel in response to the Fukushima meltdown from newspaper articles published in five major English-language newspapers in India. The findings suggest that the Fukushima meltdown has little impact on India’s nuclear energy policy. Instead, the Indian nuclear authority uses language to shape the public opinion surrounding nuclear energy.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
AERB. 2011. Report of AERB Committee to Review Safety of Indian Nuclear Power Plants Against External Events of Natural Origin. Bombay, India: Atomic Energy Regulatory Board.
Angus, Ian. 2016. Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System. New York: New York University Press.
Auyero, Javier and Débora Swistun. 2009. Flammable: Environmental Suffering in an Argentine Shantytown. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Aven, Terje and Ortwin Renn. 2009. “On Risk Defined as an Event Where the Outcome is Uncertain.” Journal of Risk Research 12(1):1-11.
BBC News. 2017. “India will Built 10 New Reactors in Huge Boost to Nuclear Power.” BBC News (May 18). Retrieved November 19, 2017 (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-39958299).
Beck, Matthias. 2016. “The Risk Implications of Globalisation: An Exploratory Analysis of 105 Major Industrial Incidents (1971-2010).” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 13(3):309.
Beck, Ulrich. 1992. Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. Cambridge, UK: Sage.
Beck, Ulrich. 1998. “Politics of Risk Society.” Pp. 9-22 in The Politics of Risk Society. Edited by J. Franklin. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Beck, Ulrich. 2014a. “Incalculable Futures: World Risk Society and Its Social and Political Implications.” Pp. 79-89 in Pioneer in Cosmopolitan Sociology and Risk Society. Edited by Ulrich Beck. New York: Springer.
Beck, Ulrich. 2014b. “We Do Not Live in an Age of Cosmopolitanism but in an Age of Cosmopolitization: The ‘Global Other’ is in Our Midst.” Pp. 169-187 in Pioneer in Cosmopolitan Sociology and Risk Society. Edited by Ulrich Beck. New York: Springer.
Bhadra, Monamie. 2013. “Fighting Nuclear Energy, Fighting for India’s Democracy.” Science as Culture 22(2):238-246.
Black, Richard. 2011. “Nuclear Power gets Little Public Support Worldwide.” BBC News November 25. Retrieved September 25, 2013 (http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-15864806).
Blowers, Andrew. 2013. “The Future Is Not Nuclear: Ethical Choices for Energy After Fukushima.” Pp. 175-193 in Nuclear Disaster at Fukushima Daiichi. Edited by Richard Hindmarsh. New York: Routledge.
Bonß, Wolfgang. 2013. “Risk: Dealing with Uncertainty in Modern Times.” Social Change Review 11(1):7-36.
Brenner, David. 2014. “Effects of Ionizing Radiation on Living Systems.” Pp. 81-86 in Crisis without End. Edited by Helen Caldicott. New York: The New York Press.
Bullard, Robert D. and Glenn S. Johnson. 2000. “Environmentalism and Public Policy: Environmental Justice: Grassroots Activism and its Impact on Public Policy Decision Making.” Journal of Social Issues 56(3):555-578.
Cable, Sherry, Thomas E. Shriver and Tamara L. Mix. 2008. “Risk Society and Contested Illness: The Case of Nuclear Weapons Workers.” American Sociological Review 73(3):380-401.
Caldicott, Helen. 2006. Nuclear Power is Not the Answer. New York: The New Press.
Caldicott, Helen. 2014. “The Nuclear Age and Future Generations.” Pp. 221-227 in Crisis without End. Edited by Helen Caldicott. New York: The New York Press.
Castleman, Barry I. 1979. “The Export of Hazardous Factories to Developing Nations.” International Journal of Health Services 9(4):569-606.
Chennai. 2012. “Police Halt Anti-KKNPP Protest, 1,800 Arrested.” The Hindu. October 29. Retrieved August 17, 2013. (http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/police-halt-antikknpp-protest-1800-arrested/article4043581.ece).
Chiles, James R. 2002. Inviting Disaster: Lessons from the Edge of Technology. New York: Harper Business.
Choudhury, Upendra. 2012. “The Impact of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Crisis on Anti-nuclear Movements in India.” Social Alternatives 31(3):39.
Clark, Brett and Andrew K. Jorgenson. 2012. “The Treadmill of Destruction and the Environmental Impacts of Militaries.” Sociology Compass 6(7):557-569.
Cooper, Mark. 2012. “Nuclear Safety and Affordable Reactors: Can We Have Both?” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 68(4):61-72.
de Souza Porto, Marcelo Firpo and Carlos Machado de Freitas. 1996. “Major Chemical Accidents in Industrializing Countries: The Socio-Political Amplification of Risk.” Risk Analysis 16(1):19-29.
Dietz, Thomas, R. Scott Frey and Eugene A. Rosa. 2002. “Risk, Technology, and Society.” Pp. 329-369 in Handbook of Environmental Sociology. Edited by Riley E. Dunlap and William Michelson. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Dikshit, Sandeep. 2011. “Despite Fukushima, Manmohan Bats for Nuclear Energy.” The Hindu. April 17. Retrieved May 11, 2012. (http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/despite-fukushima-manmohan-bats-for-nuclear-energy/article1702227.ece).
Erikson, Kai T. 1994. A New Species of Trouble: The Human Experience of Modern Disasters. New York: WW Norton & Company.
Ferree, Myra Marx (Ed). 2002. Shaping Abortion Discourse: Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the United States. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Foster, John Bellamy, Brett Clark and Richard York. 2010. The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth. New York: NYU Press.
Franklin, Jane (Ed). 1998. The Politics of Risk Society. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Frey, R. Scott. 2012. “The E-Waste Stream in the World-System.” Journal of Globalization Studies 3(1):79-94.
Frey, R. Scott. 2013. “Breaking Ships in the World-System: An Analysis of Two Ship Breaking Capitals, Alang India and Chittagong, Bangladesh.” Journal of World-Systems Research 21(1):25-49.
Funabashi, Yoichi and Kay Kitazawa. 2012. “Fukushima in Review: A Complex Disaster, A Disastrous Response.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 68(2):9-21.
Gamson, William A. and Andre Modigliani. 1989. “Media Discourse and Public Opinion on Nuclear Power: A Constructionist Approach.” American Journal of Sociology 95(1):1-37.
Giddens, Anthony. 1990. The Consequences of Modernity. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
Giddens, Anthony. 1998. “Risk Society: The Context of British Politics.” Pp. 23-34 in The Politics of Risk Society. Edited by J. Franklin. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
Giddens, Anthony. 2009. The Politics of Climate Change. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Glaser, Alexander. 2012. “From Brokdorf to Fukushima: The Long Journey to Nuclear Phase-out.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 68(6):10-21.
Gopalakrishnan, A. 2011. “Japan’s Nuclear Crisis Stokes Fears in India.” Interview with Corey Flintop. April 05, 2011. (http://www.wbur.org/npr/135143904/japans-nuclear-crisis-stokes-fears-in-india).
Gopalakrishnan, A. 2012. “Stop Kudankulam Fuelling, Lives are at Stake!” Daily News & Analysis, September 24. (http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column_stop-kudankulamfuelling-lives-are-at-stake_1744417-all).
Gupta, Shekhar. 2011. “You Should Worry Less for Nuclear Energy.” The Indian Express. March 22. Retrieved April 08, 2013 (http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/-you-should-worry-less-about-nenergy-than-about-walking-on-the-streets-or-driving-in-delhi-/765570/).
Haneefa, Mohamed and Shyma Nellikka. 2010. “Content Analysis of Online English Newspapers in India.” DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology 30(4):17-24.
Hara, Takuji. 2013. “Social Shaping of Nuclear Safety: Before and After the Disaster.” Pp 22-40 in Nuclear Disaster at Fukushima Daiichi. Edited by Richard Hindmarsh. New York: Routledge.
Hindmarsh, Richard (Ed). 2013a. Nuclear Disaster at Fukushima Daiichi: Social, Political and Environmental Issues. New York and London: Routledge.
Hindmarsh, Richard. 2013b. “Nuclear Disaster at Fukushima Daiichi: Introducing the Terrain.” Pp. 1-21 in Nuclear Disaster at Fukushima Daiichi. Edited by Richard Hindmarsh. New York: Routledge.
Hirschman, Albert O. 1970. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Catalogue 2014-2015. “Nuclear and Radiological Safety and Security.” Vienna: Austria. Retrieved January 2015 (http://www-pub.iaea.org/mtcd/publications/PDF/PubCat.pdf).
Irwin, Alan, Stuart Allan and Ian Welsh. 2000. “Nuclear Risks: Three Problematics.” Pp. 78-104 in The Risk Society and Beyond: Critical Issues for Social Theory. Edited by Barbara Adam, Ulrich Beck and Joost van Loon. London: Sage.
Johnson, Cedric (Ed). 2011. The Neoliberal Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, Late Capitalism, and the Remaking of New Orleans. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Kalam, Abdul A.P.J. and Srijan Pal Singh. 2011. “Nuclear Power is Our Gateway to a Prosperous Future.” The Hindu, Opinion Page. November 6. Retrieved February 8, 2013 (http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article2601471.ece?homepage=true).
Kan, Naoto. 2014. “No Nuclear Power Is the Best Nuclear Power.” Pp. 17-20 in Crisis Without End. Edited by Helen Caldicott. New York: The New York Press.
Karlsson, Bengt G. 2009. “Nuclear Lives: Uranium Mining, Indigenous Peoples, and Development in India.” Economic and Political Weekly 44(34):43-49.
Kim, Younghwan, Minki Kim and Wonjoon Kim. 2013. “Effect of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster on Global Public Acceptance of Nuclear Energy.” Energy Policy 61:822-828.
Lash, Scott and Brian Wayne. 2012. Introduction to Risk Society. London, UK: Sage.
Lerner, Steve. 2010. Sacrifice Zones: The Front Lines of Toxic Chemical Exposure in the United States. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Lochbaum, David, Edwin Lyman and Susan Q. Stranahan. 2014. Fukushima: The Story of a Nuclear Disaster. New York: The New Press.
MacKenzie, Donald and Judy Wajcman. 1999. “Introductory Essay: The Social Shaping of Technology.” Pp. 3-27 in The Social Shaping of Technology. Edited by Donald MacKenzie and Judy Wajcman. Buckingham: Open University Press.
McCurry, Justin. 2011. “Anxiety over radiation exposure remains high in Japan.” The Lancet 378(9796):1061-1062. Retrieved July 13, 2014 (http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(11)61466-9.pdf).
Mohan, M.P. Ram and Akshay Shandilya. 2014. “Nuclear Energy and Risk Assessment by Indian Courts: Analysis of Judicial Intervention in the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project.” Journal of Risk Research 18(8):1051-1069.
Nöggerath, Johannis, Robert J. Geller and Viacheslav K. Gusiakov. 2011. “Fukushima: The Myth of Safety, the Reality of Geoscience.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 67(5):37-46.
Normile, Dennis. 2016. “Slow Burn.” Science 351(6277):1018-1020.
Nuclear Engineering International (NEI). 2011. “New Poll: Opposition to Fukushima Grows in Most Countries.” November 28. Retrieved June 24, 2014. (http://www.neimagazine.com/news/newsnew-poll-opposition-to-nuclear-grows-in-most-countries).
O’Byrne, Darren. 2013. “Dealing with Disasters in an Age of Globalized Sentiment: Testing the Boundaries of the Cosmopolitan Ideal?” Perspectives on Global Development and Technology 12(1-2):283-297.
Parr, Adrian. 2014. The Wrath of Capital: Neoliberalism and Climate Change Politics. New York: Columbia University Press.
Patel, Raj and Jason W. Moore. A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Patnaik, Santosh. 2015. “India’s N-policy dictated by reactor lobby from US.” The Hindu February 25. Retrieved September 13, 2016. (http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Visakhapatnam/indias-npolicy-dictated-by-reactor-lobby-from-us/article6930714.ece).
Perkovich, George. 1999. India’s Nuclear Bomb: The Impact on Global Proliferation. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Perrow, Charles. 1984. Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Perrow, Charles. 2011. “Fukushima and the Inevitability of Accident.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 67(6):44-52.
Perrow, Charles. 2013. “Nuclear Denial: From Hiroshima to Fukushima.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 69(5):56-67.
Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 2009. “PM’s Inaugural Address at the International Conference on Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy.” September 29. Retrieved March 15, 2010 (http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=52858).
Ramana, M.V. 2012a. The Power of Promise: Examining Nuclear Energy in India. London, UK: Penguin.
Ramana, M.V. 2012b. “In Denial of Fukushima.” Tehelka Magazine. March 17. Retrieved March 4, 2015. (http://archive.tehelka.com/story_main52.asp?filename=Op170312Denial.asp#).
Ramana, M.V. 2013. “Nuclear Policy Responses to Fukushima: Exit, Voice, and Loyalty.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 69(2):66-76.
Ramana, M.V. and Ashwin Kumar. 2014. “‘One in Infinity’: Failing to Learn from Accidents and Implications for Nuclear Safety in India.” Journal of Risk Research 17(1):23-42.
Ramdas, L. and Lalita Ramdas. 2011. “Koodankulam Diary.” Economic and Political Weekly XLVI(53):20-22.
Ramgarh, Haryana. 2011. “AEC chief puts odds of N-plant accidents at ‘1-in-infinity’.” The Hindu. November 10. Retrieved October 27, 2013. (http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/aec-chief-puts-odds-of-nplant-accidents-at-1ininfinity/article2615375.ece).
Reuters. 2015. “Japan to Speed Up Return of Fukushima Area Evacuees.” June 12. Retrieved June 12, 2015 (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-fukushima-delay-idUSKBN0OS0H520150612).
Schneider, Mycle. 2013. “France’s Great Energy Debate.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 69(1):27-35.
Schreurs, Miranda A. 2012. “The Politics of Phase-out.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 68(6):30-41.
Shiva, Vandana. 2015. Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.
Siegrist, Michael and Vivianne H.M. Visschers. 2012. “Acceptance of Nuclear Power: The Fukushima Effect.” Energy Policy 59:112-119.
Smith, Keith. 2013. Environmental Hazards: Assessing Risk and Reducing Disaster. London: Routledge.
Sovacool, Benjamin K. 2010. “A Critical Evaluation of Nuclear Power and Renewable Electricity in Asia.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 40(3):369-400.
Spitzer, Kirk. 2015. “250,000 Japanese Still Displaced 4 Years after Quake.” USA TODAY. March 11. Retrieved March 11, 2015. (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/03/09/japan-tsunami-radiation-fourth-anniversary-fukushima/24254887/).
Srikant, Patibandla. 2009. “Koodankulam Anti-nuclear Movement: A Struggle for Alternative Development?” Working Paper. Bangalore: Institute for Social and Economic Change.
Srinivasan, M.R. 2013. “A Nuclear Dream is Set to Come True.” December 29. Opinion Page, Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved October 21, 2014 (http://www.deccanchronicle.com/131229/commentary-sunday-chronicle/article/nuclear-dream-set-come-true-mr-srinivasan).
Srinivasan, T.N. and T.S. Gopi Rethinaraj. 2013. “Fukushima and Thereafter: Reassessment of Risks of Nuclear Power.” Energy Policy 52:726-736.
Suzuki, Tatsujiro. 2011. “Deconstructing the Zero-risk Mindset: The Lessons and Future Responsibilities for a Post-Fukushima Nuclear Japan.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 67(5):9-18.
The Daily Telegraph. 2012. “One Killed in India Nuclear Plant Protest.” September 11. Retrieved October 27, 2013. (http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/one-killed-in-india-nuclear-plant-protest/story-e6freuz9-1226471469932).
The Hindu. 2011. “India Begins Construction of 25th Nuclear Plant.” July 18, 2011. Retrieved March 3, 2015. (http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/indiabeginsconstructionof25thnuclearplant/article2237873.ece).
The Hindustan Times. 2011. “We Are Prepared to Handle an Event Like the Fukushima Disaster.” September 30. Retrieved June 3, 2016. (http://www.unpan.org/PublicAdministrationNews/tabid/115/mctl/ArticleView/ModuleID/1467).
The New York Times. 2014. “Fukushima’s Continuing Tragedy.” March 11. Retrieved October 27, 2014. (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/12/opinion/fukushimas-continuing-tragedy.html?_r=0).
The Telegraph. 2013. “Fukushima Slams Ashore, Bringing Wave of Fear.” February 7, 2013. Retrieve April 21, 2016. (https://www.telegraphindia.com/1130207/jsp/nation/story_16532815.jsp).
The Times of India. 2011. “Post Fukushima: India Begins Construction on New N-plant.” July 18, 2011. Retrieved October 27, 2013. (https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/energy/power/post-fukushima-india-begins-construction-on-new-n-plant/articleshow/9268932.cms).
The Times of India. 2012. “India’s Nuclear Reactors are Highly Secure: AEC.” February 20. Retrieved March 21, 2013. (https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/energy/power/indias-nuclear-reactors-are-highly-secure-aec/articleshow/11954737.cms).
Thomas, Steve. 2012. “What will the Fukushima Disaster Change?” Energy Policy 45:12-17.
Urry, John. 2004. “Thinking Society Anew.” Pp. v-xi in Pioneer in Cosmopolitan Sociology and Risk Society. Edited by Ulrich Beck. New York: Springer.
Urry, John. 2011. Climate Change and Society. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
Wang, Hui, ZhaoYi Wang, XueMing Zhu, DaKui Wang and GuiMei Liu. 2012. “Numerical Study and Prediction of Nuclear Contaminant Transport from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in the North Pacific Ocean.” Chinese Science Bulletin 57(26):3518-3524.
Wong, Catherine Mei Ling. 2015. “Organisational Risk Perception and Transformations in India’s Nuclear Establishment.” Journal of Risk Research 18(8):1012-1029.
World Nuclear Association (WNA). 2015[2014]. Nuclear Power in India. United Kingdom: World Nuclear Association.
Yablokov, Alexey V. 2014. “What the World Health Organization, International Atomic Energy Agency, and International Commission on Radiological Protection Have Falsified.” Pp. 101-118 in Crisis without End. Edited by Helen Caldicott. New York: The New York Press.
Yamashita, Masakazu. 2012. “One-and-a-half Years since the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident Japan Has Learned Nothing: Resumption of Nuclear Operations.” International Journal of Environmental Studies 69(5):697-704.
Yep, Eric. 2011. “India Starts Building Two New Nuclear Power Plants.” The Wall Street Journal. July 18. Retrieved June 19, 2011. (http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303795304576453492981882436).
York, Richard, Eugene A. Rosa and Thomas Dietz. 2003. “Footprints on the Earth: The Environmental Consequences of Modernity.” American Sociological Review 68(2): 279-300.
Yoshimura, Mayumi and Tetsuya Yokoduka. 2014. “Radioactive Contamination of Fishes in Lake and Streams impacted by the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Accident.” Science of the Total Environment 482:184-192.
Zehner, Ozzie. 2012. “Nuclear Power’s Unsettled Future.” The Futurist 46:17-21.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 1653 | 624 | 306 |
Full Text Views | 163 | 9 | 3 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 102 | 14 | 0 |
Most research on Fukushima has been directed at technical and epidemiological aspects; yet the ways in which emerging nuclear powers such as India have responded to the meltdown is inadequate. This article investigates (1) the Fukushima meltdown as an epitome of risk associated with nuclear energy to understand what role this disaster has played in the Indian nuclear energy policy; and (2) whether the Indian nuclear authority has renewed its effort to shape the public mind in favor of nuclear safety in the wake of a deadly nuclear disaster in Fukushima. I use content analysis of statements made by nuclear personnel in response to the Fukushima meltdown from newspaper articles published in five major English-language newspapers in India. The findings suggest that the Fukushima meltdown has little impact on India’s nuclear energy policy. Instead, the Indian nuclear authority uses language to shape the public opinion surrounding nuclear energy.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 1653 | 624 | 306 |
Full Text Views | 163 | 9 | 3 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 102 | 14 | 0 |