By Geoff Brumfiel, with additional reporting by David Cyranoski and Rina Nozawa25 October 2011 The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March released far more radiation than the Japanese government has claimed. So concludes a study1 that combines radioactivity data from across the globe to estimate the scale and fate of emissions from […]
August 30 (Asahi Shimbun) – Extreme levels of radiation have been detected in soil within 40 kilometers of the quake-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the science ministry said. The finding emerged in a map published Aug. 29 that for the first time shows contamination levels of areas within a 100-km radius of the […]
By David McNeill 29 August 2011 Soma City (The Independent) – Yoshio Ichida is recalling the worst day of his 53 years: 11 March, when the sea swallowed up his home and killed his friends. The Fukushima fisherman was in the bath when the huge quake hit and barely made it to the open sea […]
By Christina Maria Paschyn27 April 2011 Natalia Manzurova was a 35-year-old nuclear engineer in Russia when she was assigned to be part of the clean-up crew at the Chernobyl power plant in northern Ukraine, site of the worst nuclear accident in history. Despite her training, Manzurova did not fully comprehend the dangers. On a preliminary […]
By Yuriy Humber and Stuart Biggs 30 May 2011 Radioactive soil in pockets of areas near Japan’s crippled nuclear plant have reached the same level as Chernobyl, where a “dead zone” remains 25 years after the reactor in the former Soviet Union exploded. Soil samples in areas outside the 20-kilometer (12 miles) exclusion zone around […]
CHERNOBYL, Ukraine—The disaster at Chernobyl on April 26, 1986, is currently ranked as the worst nuclear accident in history. Officially, tourism has opened up here, but areas remain that are too dangerous for tours. On the eve of the event’s 25th anniversary, Scientific American frequent contributor Charles Q. Choi traveled to Chernobyl and nearby Kiev […]
3 May 2011 (Desdemona Despair) – It’s hard for Desdemona to believe, but it’s been 25 years since the “worst technogenic accident in history.” Des heard the news at the front desk of the MacGregor House dorm, and has had a morbid fascination with the event ever since. The 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl explosion […]
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 […]
By Roger Highfield 21 April 2011 A quarter of a century after the world’s worst nuclear accident, experts still can’t agree how many people it killed. Two people died immediately as a result of the blast at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine – then part of the Soviet Union – on 26 April 1986. […]
April 2, 2011, 12:09pm BERLIN (AP) – For a look at just how long radioactivity can hang around, consider Germany’s wild boars. A quarter century after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union carried a cloud of radiation across Europe, these animals are radioactive enough that people are urged not to eat them. And […]
