Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) announced that three workers were injured and seven are missing following the reactor explosions that caused a "considerably risen" level of radiation at the plant. Around 140,000 people within a 20km radius were ordered inside and more than 18,000 have evacuated the area in recent days, further escalating public opposition to nuclear power.

Based on the Nuclear Share Figures 1999-2009 Table, the UK has a 17.9% global nuclear share with nuclear electricity production increasing from 52.5 TWh in 2008 to 62.9 TWh in 2009. Energy and climate change secretary Chris Huhne has launched an official investigation into how the UK can learn from the ongoing crisis at Fukushima and improve safety across its own nuclear industry, but he also highlighted the differences between Japan and UK, for example the frequency of earthquakes. "Safety is absolutely the number one priority for us in all our energy sources," he told the BBC’s Politics Show.

EDF Energy is leading the expansion of UK nuclear power and plans to have its first new plant operational by 2018. The explosions in Japan have forced the company to stress that all of its nuclear stations are protected against the effects of all credible seismic events in the UK in an attempt to mitigate any threat to stakeholder perception of safety in the face of growing opposition to nuclear power.

At the same time, urgent attempts to prevent a meltdown of Tepco’s fuel assemblies are ongoing following "desperation moves" never attempted before in the industry. Tepco is also facing a reputational "meltdown" as selling of the company’s shares sharply accelerated following the explosion at No. 3 reactor. Shares closed down 24% at Â¥1,621 on Monday. Meanwhile, Japanese stocks suffered their biggest one-day fall since 2008, TOPIX index decreasing by 9.47% with global investors "panic selling" over the nuclear crisis.

The whole world is witnessing a nuclear nightmare and the pressure on nuclear regulators and safety authorities has never been higher. As investigations reveal that the Fukushima Dai-Ichi complex was affected not only by the earthquake, but a failure of grid electricity and backup diesel electricity supply for cooling, which could happen elsewhere, the global nuclear industry is under fire and faces a deep reputational crisis. Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas said "Nuclear power carries inherent risks, and is particularly vulnerable to the potentially deadly combination of human error, design failure and natural disaster."

 

— Nicholas Chrysanthou, Energy Consultant Analyst at Alva