On Monday, the World Health Organization has said that the amount of radiation in the food from the earthquake devastated Japan and the radiations from a nuclear power plant is more serious than what was previously imagined. This has eclipsed the signs of progress in a battle so as to avoid a catastrophic meltdown in the reactors.
The engineers managed to rig the power cables to all of the 6 reactors in the Fukushima complex which is located at a distance of 150 miles north of Tokyo. A water pump was started in one of these for reversing the overheating which has led to the world’s worst imaginable nuclear handicap in 25 years. Some of the workers had been later evacuated from one of the most badly hit reactors with smoke rising from the site. There had been no immediate explanation for the smoke, although the authorities said previously that the reason for that was pressure which was being built up at the 3rd reactor. Smoke was also spotted at the 2nd reactor.
The tsunami and earthquake of March 11 had over 21000 missing or dead and it is about to be worthy of $250 billion to a disaster stricken economy. This is the world’s costliest natural disaster. The US based doctors are preparing for rationing painkillers. The head of the UN Atomic Agency believes that although the nuclear situation in the country is extremely serious, it will be resolved. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA Director General, Yukiya Amano, the crisis will be overcome in an effective manner.
The Prime Minister Naoto Kan has also given his word for coming out of the situation although the news of a nuclear progress at the nuclear plant had been overshadowed by the concern that the radioactive particles that had already been released in the atmosphere. This may have contaminated the water and food supplies.
Clearly, it is a serious situation. The problem is a lot more serious than what people used to imagine in the past. It was known that the nuclear radiations could be limited to about 25 to 30 km. in such a situation it is safe to assume that the contaminated produce went out of the contamination zone. However, there is no evidence of the infected food from Fukushima reaching other countries. While Fukushima is the worst nuclear accident of the world, its effects are far less severe than the Ukrainian disaster. |
