More than 1/3rd of Americans and ½ of Germans live within 75 km of a nuclear power plant

Anant Babu Marahatta
Sendai, Japan

Disaster is a disaster. This time, Japan is victimized. No one knows, such catastrophe may happen anytime, anywhere, in the world.　

The current world news is about the crippled Fukushima based Japanese nuclear power plants which was hit by a 9.0-magnitude quake on March 11 of 2011 and then, about 25 minutes later, a devastating tsunami. About 172,000 people lived in the 30-km zone of these plants.

The Japanese government has declared the 20-km evacuation area around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant a “no-go zone”. It has also urged the residents to abide by the order for their own safety or possibly face fines or detention. Under a special nuclear emergency law, people who enter into the zone will now be subject to fines of up to ¥100,000 and possible detention of up to 30 days.

In order to aware this potential risk of this scenario to the world, a current study released by “Nature” on Friday, 22nd April 2011, shows that about 90 million people worldwide live within 30 kilometers of a nuclear reactor, equivalent to the exclusion zone around Japan's crippled Fukushima plants. The United States alone has nearly 16 million people within this range, followed by more than 9 million each in China, Germany and Pakistan, and 5 to 6 million in India, Taiwan and France.

When the radius is expanded to 75 km, the number of people potentially at risk in case of a nuclear accident jumps to nearly half a billion. More than 110 million are in the U.S., 73 million in China, 57 million in India, 39 million in Germany and 33 million in Japan.
Let’s look at another way; more than 1/3rd of Americans live within 75 km of a nuclear power plant, and nearly half of all Germans.

It does suggest how many people will be at risk if something does go terribly wrong, as happened in Fukushima a month ago and in Chernobyl 25 years ago.

Sources:
‘The Japan Times” daily newspaper.
www.nature.com

A Chemical to capture radioactive substances: "Fukushima-reactors issue"

Anant Babu Marahatta
Tohoku university
Japan

Nuclear energy can be both beneficial and harmful, depending on the way in which it is used. We routinely use X-rays to examine bones for fractures, treat cancer with radiation, and diagnose diseases with the help of radioactive isotopes. Approximately 17% of the electrical energy generated in the world comes from nuclear power plants. 'Nuclear reactors produce electricity so cheaply that it is not necessary to meter it. The users pay a fee and use as much electricity as they want. Atoms provide a safe, clean and dependable source of electricity. '

On the other hand, nuclear hazard which literally means “risk or danger to the human health or to the environment caused by radiation emitted by the radioactive nuclei of a given substance, or the possibility of an uncontrolled explosion originating from a nuclear fusion or fission reaction of atomic nuclei”, that appeared in the Japanese “Fukushima nuclear plants” is the latest example of its negative impact. .

The contamination of the coolant (by radioactive iodine, cesium, and strontium), a mandatory process during nuclear chain reactions, caused by the “Fukushima nuclear reactors leakage” is the current issue of the world. To remove such radioactive substances, recently, a Japanese chemist and a domestic company have jointly developed a powdery chemical that can capture and precipitate radioactive substances in water.

This powder, made of various chemicals and minerals, including zeolite, can remove radioactive substances such as iodine, cesium and strontium, a professor at Kanazawa University said. The powder was able to remove almost 100 percent of cesium when 1.5 grams of the powder were mingled with 100 milliliters of water in which cesium had been dissolved at a density of 1-10 ppm. It has been confirmed to have the ability to remove iodine even at a density of 100 ppm. It is reminded that the densities of radioactive substances seeping into the water at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear complex are estimated at around 10 ppm. This powder could be used in the ongoing effort to deal with contaminated water at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant

What a problem oriented research; isn't it?