It's March 11, 2011; a 49-foot tsunami just hit the coast of Japan. The wave overwhelmed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and destroyed all the diesel generators; the plant has no way to power the pumps that cool the reactors: a blackout has occurred throughout the station. The reactors in Buildings 1, 2, and 3 have melted down; the fuel inside them reached 2700 degrees centigrade, almost as hot as the surface of the sun. Explosions begin to occur inside the reactor building; the media is calling it the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl: a nuclear holocaust. What is the death toll from this shocking disaster? Hundred? Thousand? A million? Try zero. ("Nuclear Fukushima Daiichi..." Wikipedia) The concept of nuclear energy was first conceived in 1934 with the discovery of induced radioactivity by Frederic and Irene Curie. The United States invested heavily in atomic energy research during World War II in search of the atomic bomb. After the war, they refocused their research to include nuclear energy, producing the first nuclear reactor in 1951 ("Nuclear Energy" Wikipedia). Most nuclear reactors are fueled by uranium-238; this isotope of uranium consists of only 0.7% of naturally occurring uranium. Once inside the reactor, the fuel is bombarded by neutrons. The neutrons strike the nuclei of uranium atoms, splitting them in two and releasing a huge amount of thermal energy as well as another neutron. This neutron hits another uranium atom creating a self-sustaining nuclear reaction. This reaction can be controlled by manipulating control rods that absorb the emitted neutrons. The thermal energy produced by the reaction converts the water into steam which in turn spins a tu...... middle of paper ......(“Safety of Nuclear...” World Nuclear Association). The amount of radiation released by the plant into the water in a day is less than what a person would receive from eating a banana (Stone). What most people don't know is how dangerous the use of fossil fuels is. Every year approximately 4 million people die from pneumonia, stroke and cardiac arrest caused by toxic fumes emitted by burning coal and other fuels (Powers). The ash released by coal-fired power plants actually contains more radiation than that emitted by nuclear power plants (Stone). Nuclear energy is relatively safe even in the event of disasters or accidents. By law, nuclear power plants must be equipped to handle a 1-in-10,000-year disaster. This means it should be able to handle the worst disaster of its kind in 10,000 years. Nuclear disasters happen because of one thing: the lack of adequate cooling.