Regarding the Jan. 3 front-page article "Fukushima meltdowns set nuclear energy debate on its ear": It appears that the Japanese are just now discovering natural background radiation. The fossil-fuel industry is playing their emotions like a violin. Please go to http://www.unscear.org/unscear/en/publications/2000_1.html
Japan is getting 100 to 400 times as much radiation from coal burning as it is from nuclear power, including Chernobyl and Fukushima. Calculate your annual radiation dose at:
http://www.ans.org/pi/resources/dosechart/
Please read the book: "Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy" by Gwyneth Cravens (2007).
The Japanese are trying to reduce their exposure to radiation to less than that from the natural background! Do they even know that there is natural background radiation? How else would we date Egyptian mummies with the radioactive carbon they ate thousands of years ago? Since most of Japan was not checked with Geiger counters before the March 11 tsunami, the Japanese don't know how much radiation was already in locations measured recently.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.