Japan’s nuclear crisis spawns bestsellers

Washington Post : Since the 11 March beginning of Japan’s nuclear crisis, Japanese publishers have been releasing books about nuclear power at the rate of more than one a day, writes Chico Harlan for the Washington Post. The author list includes academics, journalists, industry experts, former insiders, and renegade government officials. And not surprising in light of the problems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the views expressed in the books are four to one against nuclear power—roughly the same ratio shown in recent opinion polls. “People are beginning to realize that nuclear power is dangerous. I think maybe now is the time when we can make a decision to make a significant turnaround in our society,” said Hiroaki Koide, a Japanese nuclear researcher at the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute. After decades of publishing policy that mirrored the pro-nuclear message of Japanese bureaucrats, the tide has turned, and Koide and others who oppose nuclear power are finding that demand for their expertise has swelled over the past months.