As a result of an earthquake on 11 March 2011, the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima Dai-ichi experienced a worst case disaster scenario, which included multiple meltdowns. A great deal of what nuclear regulatory authorities and the nuclear industry typically dismiss as irrelevant and “practically impossible” played a role in the course of the disaster in three reactors and four fuel rod pools – an earthquake, an electricity blackout, the failure of emergency batteries, steam powered cooling pumps, explosions, etc. On 12 April 2011, Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) categorized the reactor accident as being at Level 7
(catastrophic accident), the highest level on the International Nuclear Event Scale
(INES), as a result of the massive release of radioactivity. An international research
team concluded in a study published on 21 October 2011 that the Fukushima nuclear disaster led to the release of 2.5 times as much of the radioactive noble gas xenon-133 as was the case in Chernobyl. The study, conducted under the auspices of the Norwegian Institute for Air Research, estimates a release of 16,700 petabecquerels of xenon-133 in the period from 11-15 March. According to the
authors, this was “the largest non-military release in the history of mankind.”

On 26 April 1986 block 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power station exploded. The world witnessed the biggest catastrophe ever to occur in a nuclear power station.  Today; untold numbers of people suffer, and will continue to suffer, from the effects. Scientists are still trying to grasp the true extent of the suffering.

The catastrophe in Chernobyl affected and continues to affect approximately nine million people. An area of about 162,000 km² was contaminated and an estimated
400,000 people had to be relocated. According to UN organisations such as the
IAEA and the governments of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, the file on Chernobyl
can be closed. Poverty, an unhealthy lifestyle and mental disorders allegedly constitute a far greater threat than radiation. Restricted areas are to be reintegrated
into the economic income flow as soon as possible, and it has even been suggested
that a tourist programme be developed for the prohibited area. Plans are afoot for a
new nuclear power station in Belarus – so the government would rather not talk
about the health risks of nuclear energy.

In fact, a comprehensive and objective estimate of effects on health is almost impossible, particularly as research during the first years following the accident was hindered by secrecy regulations. The actual amount of radioactive radiation that was released is also not known with any degree of certainty. According to the official Soviet version, this was 50 million Curie, but other experts estimate it to have been more like five billion Curie. The amount of radiation which people were exposed to is also unclear. The composition of the radioactive cloud as a result of the catastrophe  varied from day to day. Whereas some areas were exposed to a lot of radiation, others received little. Moreover, the radionuclides varied: iodine 31 is known to cause thyroid cancer and is only active for a few weeks; plutonium on the other hand lasts for tens of thousand of years. In the weeks immediately following the explosion, the “combined” radiation exposure was a thousand times higher than it was in subsequent months.

“Despite these elements of uncertainty, independent experts have put the figure
for the total number of deaths throughout the world at between 900,000 and 1.8
million. As the nuclides from Chernobyl remain in the biosphere, this figure also includes those who will die in the future,“ explained Alexey Yablokov, member of the
Russian Academy of Sciences. IAEA put the number of deaths due to the nuclear
disaster at under 50. Even now, a quarter of a century after the Chernobyl  catastrophe, its effects are still being suppressed, hushed up, played down and trivialised.