How Many Chernobyls Before We Get It?

Twenty-five years after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion, a massive earthquake and ensuing tsunami devastated northeast Japan, killing and injuring thousands of people and crippling the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant. Though the likelihood of this catastrophic event was known, the plant was not designed to withstand the massive tsunami that disabled its backup power and cooling systems. Compounding the crisis, the plant's disaster preparedness plan and equipment were woefully inadequate for emergency response.

Japanese authorities enforced an immediate (likely permanent) evacuation zone of 12 miles around the plant, later expanded to 18 miles. Within a week, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced a far grimmer assessment of the nuclear disaster's risks, and Americans within a 50-mile radius of the plant were told to evacuate. By day nine, radioactively contaminated agricultural products as far away as 65 miles were banned for sale, and radioactive iodine was found in Tokyo's drinking water 142 miles away. Within a fortnight, an Austrian air monitoring network stated that radioactive releases from Fukushima approached those of Chernobyl. By week three, the new maelstrom was highly radioactive water leaking through cracks into groundwater, spilling into the sea through maintenance tunnels and contaminating marine ecosystems. In week four, a welter of long-lived problems that will worsen over time - namely, stresses on containment structures filled with water, explosive atmospheres in reactor structures and salt buildup from seawater doused on fuel rods -were identified by NRC nuclear engineers assessing the crisis.

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