Disaster in Japan: Nuclear Radiation

On March 11th, 2011 the islands of Japan were rocked by a catastrophic 8.9 magnitude earthquake that shattered structures, killed many and triggered subsequent tsunami/wave activity throughout the Pacific ocean.  This event is devastating on a worldwide scale considering that Japan is such a large industrial and economic superpower such as the United States, China, etc.  Japan has had earthquakes before however as the country lies along the imaginary ring of fire where seismic and volcanic activity is very common.  Perhaps even more concerning than the destruction and lives lost is the release of nuclear radiation from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant that has been crippled by the recent disaster.

Initially the reactors were not leaking radiation though they had been retaining heat after they had been shutdown.  Keeping the reactors of a nuclear power plant cooled  is of course imperitive to their operation.  More recently however reports have been surfacing about great concern over nuclear radiation being expelled from the plant impacting the environment.  This is of course a very dangerous and delicate issue.  After learning this myself I immediatley started thinking about the nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine in 1986.  An entire city housing the plant and its workers were completely abandoned.  Plumes of radiation spread over a vast region in many directions as far away as Norway.  Many residents of the nearby area were also evacuated within a certain distance from the plant called the exclusion zone.  Many cases of cancer and disease are to blame from the radiation.  The plant itself is still a radiation hotspot to this day and will be for a long time.  With the recent disaster in Japan I begin to wonder if something similar could happen.

The Chernobyl disaster occured under different circumstances, different times, different governments, ect.  But the ultimate danger still exists with the contamination of people, plants, food and the environment due to nuclear radiation fallout.  People were being urged to take potassium iodine pills to counteract any biological effects from radiation exposure.  I certainly hope the extreme measures taken after the Chernobyl disaster won't be necessary in Japan but at this point the future is still uncertain.