Japan Has Raised the Highest Nuclear Alert in Fukushima Dai-Ichi Power Plant

Fukushima Power Plant

It is alarming that Japan has raised nuclear alert to the highest of 7. This is perhaps the worst nuclear tragedy in Japan since the nuclear bombs explosions in Nagazaki and Hiroshima during World War II and the worst after the Chernobyl nuclear fall out in Ukraine.

According to reports, in the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, 237 people suffered from acute radiation sickness, of which 31 died within the first three months (Wikipedia). Most of them are firefighters and rescuers that have tried to contain the effect of the incident without prior knowledge of how dangerous the situation has become.

Japanese authorities are evacuating people within 50 kilometers from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant.

As of this time, the agency of Japan still insists that the level of radioactive particles within Fukushima is lower in comparison with the Chernobyl incident.

According to reports, the radiation levels in the worst hit areas of the reactor building in Chernobyl have been estimated to be 5.6 roentgens per second (R/s), equivalent to more than 20,000 roentgens per hour. A lethal dose is around 500 roentgens over 5 hours (Wikipedia).... On the other hand, Japanese nuclear officials say that the Fukushima reactors have still only released a tenth of the amount of radioactive material that was spewed out in Ukraine in 1986. (The World Today by Meredith Griffiths).

This Fukushima incident has opened debates about whether or not it is still prudent to put up nuclear power plants. It depends on how we will look at Fukushima. We can look at it in the perspective of the potential disaster nuclear power plants can bring or in the perspective of learning from the experience the proper preventive measures and management method that we can adapt to eliminate a possible disaster.

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