News: “George Washington Touches a Nerve”

The aircraft carrier, not the President.

Living in the only country in the world that was actually at the receiving end of a hostile nuclear bomb means dealing with a people who are (rightly) a bit sensitive about all things atomic. Take the recent assignment of the US aircraft carrier, the George Washington, to Japan. The Japanese want no part of something that could potentially be leaking radioactive waste into Tokyo Harbor, nor is the irony of having it provided courtesy of the very country that also dropped the bombs on them in the first place lost on them.

At first I was tempted to scoff at the idea of a military ship having a reactor meltdown (after all, they build them tough), but then I realized a critical difference between a civilian power plant and an aircraft carrier: this is a military ship. If there’s an attack by a foreign power, they’re going to want to blow it up. This would be a bad thing.

Of course, dumping a million gallons of gasoline wouldn’t be much better. Not to mention the part where you’re getting attacked.

Read the full article at the Japan Times here.