Five lessons from the nuclear accident in Fukushima

Nuclear incidents at Fukushima plant made the whole world worry. Here are five lessons from Fukushima .

1. Fukushima is not Chernobyl

The worst nuclear incident in the world, occurring in the Soviet Union (old) in April 1986, is completely different from what is happening in Japan right now. At Chernobyl, a safety inspection of an active reactor made a serious mistake, leading to the explosion that made the core completely exposed. The nuclear fuel fires that took place over a few days brought nuclear material into the air and spread throughout Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. Many radioactive clouds flew across the European sky.

In Fukushima, the reactors were successfully disconnected when the earthquake struck Japan. However, nuclear fuel is still heated for several days and needs to be cooled. Unfortunately, the factory operation has a series of problems in the cooling system, causing the plant to release a small amount of radioactive vapor into the air.

As a result, a series of hydrogen gas explosions occurred, blowing the upper roof of the reactor housing that covered the primary shielding bin. These explosions are not related to the nucleus and the reactors inside the kiln are almost completely intact.

As a result, the amount of radioactive waste so far is still very small and not much different from the daily radioactivity that we do not care about, such as when taking x-rays. Radiation from Fukushima is compared to radiation from eating bananas. It is reported that the radioactivity index at the plant is about 1-2 bananas / day, sometimes up to 30 fruits / day but decreases soon after.

Coastal wilderness in Miyagi Prefecture covered with snow (photo: EPA)

2. Chernobyl is not really Chernobyl as rumored

Just mentioning the name Chernobyl was evoking images of abandoned radioactive lands, tens of thousands of people died and nothing survived. In fact, other reactors at the factory have reopened after only seven months and thousands of people have worked there safely for another 14 years (some are still working). The area around the plant is quite similar to a nature reserve.

This accident caused more than 50 deaths. Experts had to figure out how to estimate the number of deaths among people in the areas around the factory and the workers who still worked weekly to months after the incident. The number of 9,000 deaths from cancer has been published since 2006, but is counted on millions of people over decades.

In fact, this is even a judgment because the impact of the incident is so small that it does not affect health statistics much , except for a rare but treatable disease - thyroid cancer.

3. The fear of overreacting is more dangerous than radiation

Radiation obsession can cause many negative consequences. In the 2006 report on the Chernobyl incident, the most worrying result of the incident that researchers pointed out was the psychological consequence that the incident caused, especially for those who had to evacuate from work. work, live and have social relationships.

" The psychological grief arising from the incident and its consequences still profoundly affect individual and community behavior," the report authors said. "Residents in the affected area exhibit a clear negative attitude in self-assessment of health, happiness and an intense feeling of lack of control over their own lives, leading to exaggeration. About the health risks of radiation: Affected residents believe that people infected with radiation are almost aware of the end of the day . "

Customers come to buy frozen salt at the Wuhan supermarket, Hubei province (China).
Believing that salt can help them reduce the risk of radiation poisoning.(Photo: Reuteur)

4. Reversing communication effect

The reaction to events in Japan shows that there are newspapers and TV stations that are reporting science more seriously than previous fears like " mad cow disease " or genetically modified crops.

Meanwhile, some articles are bluntly confusing with words such as " consequences ", " nuclear melting ", " rising radiation levels" , " thousands of dead " scattered across the title. . However, the consequences are only fleeting. The reactor melting phenomenon is just a big mess and needs to be cleaned up afterwards. As the incident in 1979 in Three Mile Island in the United States showed, a melting caused insignificant consequences in a wider environment. And deaths are caused by earthquakes and tsunamis, not by nuclear leaks.

However, reading more information from many articles, you can see that, experts repeating what is happening in Fukushima is not a big problem, is not likely to cause death and launch. The radiation escaped almost harmlessly. On television, when experts try to reassure public opinion, the interviewee has to answer like a machine that is not scary. However, the dense appearance of the Fukushima incident in the press makes people feel that something terrible is happening.

5. Fear is controlled by social leaders

Overstating the dangers of radioactivity directly or implicitly from the government's precautionary policies can have real consequences in Japan right now. For example, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has urged people to calm down or local governments to ask 140,000 people in the areas around Fukushima to stay at home, closing windows . which could raise concerns.

The good and calm reaction of the Japanese government before the disaster has made people trust. However, like many other governments around the world, they cannot grasp the full assessment of the risk from Fukushima, ultimately adversely affecting people's reactions. Emperor Akihito even stated that he was "deeply concerned " about the events at the factory.

Yoshie Murakami cried painfully as she grabbed her mother's hand
Funny burial in the rubble near the house in Rikuzentakata. According to the
Daily Mail, now 25,000 people died from earthquakes and waves
god in Japan.(Photo: AP)

Not only Japanese politicians have raised concerns. Gunther Oettinger, European energy commissioner said March 16: " Part of the incident is out of control. I can't rule out the worst in the hours, the coming days ."

The German government closed 7 nuclear reactors while reviewing its future nuclear strategy. The British government also proposed a safety review of the factory in their country. How could an earthquake and tsunami in a hot spot about seismic Japan like such a cautious precaution in Europe !?

Of course, many different interest groups have gathered to declare that F ukushima represents "the end of nuclear " to promote their " pet " - renewable energy or gas mining. The German government's plant shutdown order involves not only safety concerns but also political campaigns.

The reaction to Fukushima illustrates very well for some power trends in recent years. On the one hand, we have a society formed by individuals who have been deemed weak and helpless. We have political leaders who are proving their existence by caressing people's fears of natural disasters. And we have a strong sense that humanity is the greatest threat to itself and to the planet. Therefore, the obsession with artificial disasters has far more weight than natural disasters.

The time has come to haunt the fate of a nuclear power plant. If we keep adding these fears as we have done in recent days, we may face a greater disaster: distrust of humanity itself.

This commentary was written by Rob Lyons - the deputy editor of Spiked newspaper. The operational principle posted on this page is "to enhance the vision of humanity through a cultural battle against prejudice, advocacy against new techniques, non-freedom and illogicalism in all According to that, Spiked will be recognized by liberal thinkers like John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx, chained by narrow ideas like Torquemad and Stalin . if those This character has the opportunity to read it ".