Different Media Attention to Nuclear Science

Real-life nuclear wastewater release in Fukushima didn’t get as much attention in the USA as the filmed atomic bomb in Oppenheimer.

On August 24, 2023, the Japanese government started discharging treated Fukushima nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean. The plan is approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The nuclear power plant, damaged in 2011, produced more than 1 million tons of wastewater, and the entire project is expected to take at least 30 years.

On September 11, The first round of discharge was completed, discharging 7,788 tons. On October 5, the second round of discharge began.

Oppenheimer, which tells the story of the atomic bomb, was released in North America on July 21 and in China on August 30, 2023. 

They were all about nuclear science, at roughly the same time, but may received completely different media attention in different countries.

Different countries reacted differently. China, North Korea and some political parties in Japan and South Korea has strong opposition. The U.S. and the EU expressed support. 

Researchers in Tsinghua University built a long-term simulation of the discharge plan.

Results show that due to the action of ocean currents, the early influence was in the East Asian coast, but the concentration was higher in the west coast of North America after about 3 years.

The lack of U.S. media attention may have kept the general public in the dark. This may be for political reasons, or a lack of concern about the long-term implications.

Media Cloud is a website to analyse media coverage. I used it to compare attention to both in different countries from June 1 to November 18, 2023, using Oppenheimer and Fukushima as keywords respectively.

The U.S. media has significantly less attention to Fukushima than Global Sources.

For different countries, there are approximately 3 main patterns: USA, India pay more attention to Oppenheimer; Canada and Australia are roughly the same; while Japan, China, South Korea and Singapore pay more attention to Fukushima.