A fly on the wall as Tokyo University's fledgling nuclear engineering class of 1962 reunion grapples with Fukushima catastrophe

The Mainichi Daily News has published a fascinating article, interviewing several nuclear engineers who graduated from the University of Tokyo's fledging Atomic Age Class of 1962. After spending lifetimes devoted to control of the atom, they now question if that is even possible. One had survived Hiroshima at age 4, and vowed to show Americans what Japan was made of, after being exposed to "Atoms for Peace" propaganda as a child. Another vowed to wrest energy from mere rock (uranium) after having survived bitter cold winters in energy-starved post war Japan. Yet another began his career as a health protection specialist, but after having seen what radiation did to lab rats, asked himself "can humankind tame something as dangerous as this?" He eventually became anti-nuclear power, and suffered serious harassment in academia as a consequence. "I just don't think that nuclear power and humankind can coexist," he concluded.