Bloomberg View reported that from a nuclear safety standpoint, it is difficult to imagine a scarier scenario than what happened on March 11, 2011. An earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale powerful enough to shift the position of the Earth axis by about 6.5 inches hit 80 miles off the Japanese coast. Within minutes, a series of seven tsunamis, some as high as 50 feet, slammed into the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Backup diesel generators, designed to keep the reactor cooling water pumps operating, quickly failed. A day later, a hydrogen explosion blew the roof off the Unit 1 reactor building.
Over the next few days, similar explosions hit Units 2 and 3. Three reactors melted down. It was the worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl accident in 1986. But here is the reality: It led directly to exactly two deaths two workers who drowned at the plant. It was feared that radioactive materials from the plant would contaminate large areas of Japan and even reach the U.S. That did not happen. In early 2013, the World Health Organization reported that radiation exposure due to Fukushima was low and concluded that outside the immediate geographical areas most affected by radiation, even in locations within Fukushima prefecture, the predicted risks remain low and no observable increases in cancer above natural variation in baseline rates are anticipated.
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