A decade and a half before it blew apart in a hydrogen blast that punctuated the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, the No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima nuclear power plant was the scene of an earlier safety crisis.

Then, as now, a small army of transient workers was put to work to try to stem the damage at the oldest nuclear reactor run by Japan's largest utility.

by Harumi Ozawa

Thousands of people rallied in Japan Saturday to demand a shift away from nuclear power after an earthquake and tsunami sparked the world's worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl a quarter-century ago.

The Japanese nuclear disaster has focused attention on global energy resources and nuclear power's role as a source of electricity.

Now is an opportune moment for Japan and the United States, in particular, to undertake a thorough re-examination of their current energy environments and to develop robust new energy policies to address both domestic and international energy use.