Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Fukushima and Chernobyl Side-by-Side

Posted by timothy on from the holy-super-pollution dept.

gbrumfiel writes "It's now been six months since an earthquake and tsunami sparked a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. New data from the Japanese government is now allowing a closer comparison of the fallout from the disaster with the Chernobyl. In terms of Cs-137, the contaminant of greatest concern, Fukushima appears to be about a fifth as bad as Chernobyl. Nature News has a Google Earth mash-up that lets you see the two accidents together. Nature also reports that chaos and bureaucracy are slowing efforts to research the crisis." (Note: There's plenty left for Linux users in the accompanying text, but the Google Earth plug-in is for Windows and Mac OS X only.)

3 of 284 comments (clear)

  1. Japan's nuclear disaster "on par" with Chernobyl by debrain · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The Stackexchange Skeptics web-site has a relatively thorough and well cited wiki, Is Japan's nuclear disaster "on par" with Chernobyl), that compares the two disasters using a number of objective metrics.

    It seems fairly apparent based on that wiki that while Fukushima is a serious nuclear event, it is a fraction of the calamity that Chernobyl was, using the available objective data.

  2. Bit early to start comparing . . . by Idou · · Score: 1, Interesting

    When new estimates are constantly coming out. And, "available objective data?" You have never fucking heard of TEPCO, have you?

    I think anyone seriously trying to do comparisons at this point is clueless, especially when radioactive particles are continuously spewing out from the Fukushima site at rates that can only be guesstimated.

    --
    Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
  3. Re:Just have to say . . . by Ferzerp · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think you're an anti-nuclear power shill.

    Here you claim to work for the NRC (suspiciously no mention of supposed house ownership in Japan) http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2359418&cid=36960274

    Here you claim to own a house near Fukushima. http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2418782&cid=37340946

    This time it is an apartmnet owned by a friend. http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2418782&cid=37340482