pece_annotation_1472841720
tamar.rogoszinski"The Fukushima Effect: A New Geopolitan Terrain", edited by Richard A. Hindmarsh, Rebecca Priestley.
"The Fukushima Effect: A New Geopolitan Terrain", edited by Richard A. Hindmarsh, Rebecca Priestley.
One argument presented is that public engagement in technical decisions can lead to great vigilance and confidence in emergency preparedness and that decisions governing technologies should not be left to the scientist. There is benefit in including lay people and STS scholars. This also includes public awareness about emergency response instead of one elite governing body controlling what is best for the public. Nuclear emergency responses must be transparent.
The author's name is Sonja D. Schmid. She is an associate professor at Virginia Tech teaching primarily STS courses. She does research pertaining the history and organization of nuclear industries in the Former Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe. One of her areas of specialization include nuclear emergency response, which makes her a good source for information regarding Fukushima.
Information and data to create this article was pulled from numerous sources (5 pages of references), esp. The International Atomic Energy Agency, and many research articles.
Emergency response is addressed in this report. Responses from various outlets to the Fukushima nuclear disaster are outlined and critiqued to prove the end point of Schmid, which is that an international nuclear emergency response plan is necessary.
The author is Sonja D. Schmid who is a professor of Science and Technology in Society at Virginia Tech. Her area of expertise is the social aspect of science and technology, esp. during the Cold War, as well as science and technology policy, science and democracy, qualitative studies of risk, energy policy, and nuclear emergency response. As a professor and researcher she has does relevant studies on Fukushima and nuclear disasters relevant to the DSTS network. One such article titled "The unbearable ambiguity of knowing: making sense of Fukushima" is cited below:
Schmid, Sonja D. "The Unbearable Ambiguity of Knowing: Making Sense of Fukushima." Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. N.p., 2013. Web.
Three quotes that support this are
“Numerous case studies have document that meaningfully engaging lay communities in decisions traditionally made by scientific and technical elites can enable greater vigilance and raise confidence about individual emergency prepardeness.” (Schmid 196)
“So far, the nuclear industry has almost exclusively focused on accident prevention.” … “nuclear emergency preparedness and response has hardly gained traction.” (Schmid 200)
“They created an organization, Spetsatom” … “and with defining generalizable strategies about how to respond to a possible future nuclear emergency” (Schmid 200)
Sonja D. Schmid uses data pertaining international response to the disaster that occurred in Fukushima. She uses references and information gathered that has to do with the reactions of various leaders. She uses past situations and opinions in order to formulate her conclusion and claim that there is a need for an international nuclear emergency response plan. She pulls from examples that show that many organizations that tried in the past to create a plan failed due to the lack of international authority.
I further examined more details about the Fukushima disaster not mentioned in the article as I don't remember much from when this disaster occured. I also examined more about the first responders at Fukushima and the efforts that were made to attempt to minimize the effects of the disaster on an individual scale. I then looked into other similar disasters, like the Chernobyl disaster, that have occurred that I was not very familiar with and compared them to the Fukushima disaster.
The author is Sonja D. Schmid who is a professor of Science and Technology in Society at Virginia Tech. Her area of expertise is the social aspect of science and technology, esp. during the Cold War, as well as science and technology policy, science and democracy, qualitative studies of risk, energy policy, and nuclear emergency response. As a professor and researcher she has does relevant studies on Fukushima and nuclear disasters relevant to the DSTS network. One such article titled "The unbearable ambiguity of knowing: making sense of Fukushima" is cited below:
Schmid, Sonja D. "The Unbearable Ambiguity of Knowing: Making Sense of Fukushima." Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. N.p., 2013. Web.