Fukushima catastrophe ‘already more serious than Chernobyl’

TOKYO, April 25 (UPI) – Radiation leaks remain a health threat for areas around Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, officials said. The crisis at the plant resulted from an earthquake and tsunami March 11. Some experts believe the Fukushima crisis is more serious than that resulting from an explosion at Ukraine’s Chernobyl power plant 25 years ago, the Mainichi Daily News reported Monday. “It’s graver than Chernobyl in that no one can predict how the situation will develop,” said Atsushi Kasai, a former senior researcher with the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. In addition to danger from leaking radioactivity, Japanese citizens are also at risk of psychological illnesses, officials said. … The Yomiuri Shimbun said Monday the amount of radiation released from the damaged plant is greater than first reported. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it could be as long as four months before it is able to control radiation leakage from the crippled reactors. …

Health risks numerous near nuclear plant

By Andrew Osborn, Moscow
25 Apr 2011 In a rare interview on the eve of the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl on Monday, Col-Gen Nikolai Antoshkin said he was shocked at how poorly Japan had coped with its own nuclear disaster. “Right at the start when there was not yet a big leak of radiation they (the Japanese) wasted time. And then they acted in slow-motion,” he said. The Soviets had evacuated 44,600 people within two and a half hours and put them up in “normal comfortable conditions” on the same day, he recalled. “Look at advanced Japan,” he said. “People are housed in stadiums and are lying about on the floors of sports halls in unhygienic conditions.” Gen Antoshkin said he thought the Japanese were simply unable to cope on their own. “It is clear that they do not have enough strength or means. They need to ask the international community for help,” he said. “I think the Japanese catastrophe is already more serious than Chernobyl. The main thing is that they do not allow it to become three, four or five times more serious.” …

Chernobyl recovery officer criticises Japan’s efforts at Fukushima