domingo, 29 de septiembre de 2013

One Wrong Move at Fukushima Could Unleash a Nuclear Disaster Equivalent to 85 Chernobyls » RYOT News

One Wrong Move at Fukushima Could Unleash a Nuclear Disaster Equivalent to 85 Chernobyls » RYOT News


More than two years after a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan, the Fukushima power plant sits in ruins, leaking 300 tons of contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean every day. But that’s small potatoes compared to what might happen in November.

In what could be humankind’s most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis, TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Co). — the Japanese company that owns the Fukushima power plant — will attempt to remove approximately 1,300 fuel rods from the heavily damaged Reactor Unit 4. Why should you care? Because many experts feel that neither TEPCO nor Japan have the scientific, engineering or financial resources to handle the repair. And you know what happens if they screw up? Nuclear disaster.

n this April 7, 2011 file photo, Japanese police wearing protective radiation suits search for the bodies of victims of the tsunami in the Odaka area of Minami Soma, inside the deserted evacuation zone established for the 20-kilometer radius around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plants. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, File)

In this April 7, 2011 file photo, Japanese police wearing protective radiation suits search for the bodies of victims of the tsunami in the Odaka area of Minami Soma, inside the deserted evacuation zone established for the 20-kilometer radius around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plants. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, File)




We’re talking more than 15,000 times as much radiation as was released during the bombing of Hiroshima in WWII. That’s the equivalent of 85 Chernobyl disasters.