Unfortunately, I Told You So

Published at 15:32 on 21 September 2011

When I said the Fukushima disaster was another Chernobyl.

It’s been rated by none other than the Japanese government itself at the same level of severity as Chernobyl; Fukushima and Chernobyl stand by themselves as the only INES Level 7 incidents in history. Fukushima has a 20 km permanent evacuation zone around it (and Japan has been roundly criticized for not making that larger). Chernobyl has a 30 km zone around it.

By all measures, the two are indeed comparable in severity, even though the types of reactors involved and the specifics of the two catastrophes are very different.

And it’s not over yet. The situation is still far from resolved, and there’s a typhoon headed straight for the damaged reactors.

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