Japan – Vast Devastation. Comparing Nuclear Events at Fukushima, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island: Q&A. Radiation leaks from Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s earthquake-stricken reactors in northeastern Japan represent the worst nuclear power accident since the meltdown at Chernobyl, Ukraine, almost 25 years ago, scientists say.
Helicopters poured 30 metric tons of water today on pools used to cool spent fuel rods. No change in radiation was reported after four runs by the aircraft, Kyodo News said, citing plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. Once exposed, the spent fuel rods may catch fire and melt, spewing radiation into the atmosphere. “Radiation levels are extremely high, which could possibly impact the ability to take corrective measures,” U.S. Japan: earthquake aftermath. Lessons for Japan from the Chernobyl catastrophe. The worsening crisis at the Fukushima power station in Japan has led to inevitable comparisons with the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster that killed workers at the plant instantly, caused cancers in the surrounding population and spread radioactive contamination so far that livestock restrictions are still in place at some farms around the UK.
The situation at Fukushima – which the French nuclear agency estimates to be a level six "serious accident" (two up from the one at Three Mile Island in 1979) – is certainly grave and immediately dangerous for those at the site who are fighting to make the crippled reactors and fuel storage ponds safe. But whatever warnings are now being issued by foreign governments to their citizens in Japan, there are significant differences that set this apart from the catastrophe in Ukraine, even as the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission warned that a pool of spent fuel rods at Fukushima had boiled dry.