Fukushima nuclear fallout

The Fukushima nuclear reactor on 16/03/11 (Digital Globe 2).


It was reported that the levels of radiation emanating from reactor 2 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has reached 10 million times that of normal (see The Guardian).

This frightening estimate was taken from tests performed on a pool of water that had formed in the reactor. Workers reportedly fled after recording the reading of 1,000 millisieverts (mSv) per hour; a second reading that would have confirmed this was never taken. Not long after, authorities at the nuclear plant (TEPCO) dismissed this announcement as a mistake and that new tests will be carried out. They in turn got a severe reprimand from the Japanese government for striking unnecessary terror on an already freaked out planet.

Since the nuclear fallout a series of rathered measured, and sometimes confusing reports have been released from Japan regarding the state of the nuclear reactors, the safety of the surrounding areas and the levels of radiation now found in the soil, sea, drinking water and food sources in and further afield of Fukushima. To be fair this is to be expected; this is a country battling one of the biggest nuclear disasters the world has ever seen since Chernobyl. It is also the biggest earthquake and worst nuclear disaster Japan has faced, the latter since WWII. With things having happened and still is happening so quickly there is precious little time for the relevant authorities to play to the gallery.

But it is this lack of news, made worse by the dominating news coverage of events in Libya, that makes the whole situation even more unnerving. The calm and dismissive statements being made while the nuclear reactor still stands damaged, smoldering and leaking hints of a ploy to prevent mass panic. Do the abnormal levels of radioactive matter being detected in the soil around Fukushima, the tap water as far away as Tokyo and in Japanese food products really pose no threat to human health? Authorities have so far declared the levels detected minimal, but with the long half life of some of these elements (Plutonium has a half life of 24,200 years) and with the reactors still releasing radiation into the water and atmosphere, who knows what the total levels may be, where this will end up and how this will effect the citizens of Japan and their later generations?

Only time can answer these questions. But right now as the courageous workers at the Fukushima plant battle on, the events in Japan should serve as a warning to the rest of the world. Nuclear power may be clean and have huge potential, but the dangers associated with it are immense and long lasting. Alternative energy sources that are safe, clean and renewable must be sought out. For the sake of world health and for sake of our future generations the world must find a way to put enterprise and politics aside and instead put a thinking cap on.

Story: The Guardian

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Fukushima nuclear fallout

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