1-Background+Information

**On March 11, 2011**, an earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, churning up a devastating tsunami that swept over cities and farmland in the northern part of the country and set off warnings as far away the west coast of the United States and South America. Recorded as 9.0 on the Richter scale, it was the most powerful quake ever to hit the country.
 * The Central Issue: **

As the nation struggled with a rescue effort, it also faced the worst nuclear emergency since Chernobyl. Cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station failed shortly after the earthquake. More than 200,000 residents were evacuated from areas surrounding the facility. Explosions and leaks of radioactive gas took place in three reactors, which suffered partial meltdowns, while spent fuel rods at another reactor overheated and caught fire, releasing radioactive material directly into the atmosphere.

Japanese officials began turning to increasingly desperate measures, as traces of radiation were found in Tokyo's water and in water pouring from the reactors into the ocean. A month after the quake, nuclear officials put the crisis in the same category of severity as the Chernobyl disaster.

**Thousands of lives were affected by the nuclear disaster,** however nuclear energy has also proven to be a very useful source of energy for the Japanese. What are your views on Nuclear energy? Should we take such a risk?