JAPAN TSUNAMI

Japan Tsunami

Japan Tsunami

According to the Government of Japan, nearly 19 million meals have been delivered to the affected area while additional 4.6 million meals are under delivery. Sufficient drinking water has also been delivered together with non-food Items such as blankets, fuels and sanitary items, especially to evacuation centers. There are still approximately 154,000 evacuees in more than 2,300 official evacuation centers in 18 prefectures. 85% of evacuees (approximately 135,000) are concentrated in the worst affected prefectures of Iwate (48,736), Miyagi (56,386) and Fukushima (25,886). Those who evacuated outside the abovementioned prefectures reached to more than 22,000 persons, mostly from the 20 km evacuation zone around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

In the wake of the tragic Tsunami in Japan on March 11th, there are concerns that levels of radiation released from the damaged nuclear reactors pose a significant risk to people living in the Western United States. Some health advocates recommend people take potassium iodide for prevention. I disagree with this recommendation. Before deciding to purchase and take potassium iodide there are some considerations that should be made. These considerations include: will the amount of radiation reaching the Western coast pose an immediate or long term health risk, do the benefits of taking potassium iodide outweigh the potential risks, and are there other, more practical agents to take considering our distance from the disaster. This unfortunate natural disaster is likely to inspire those who recently supported nuclear measures to have second thoughts. If collective support for nuclear power withdraws, so will any other political or financial assistance to the nuclear industry.

Nuclear accident in Japan once again vividly demonstrated the danger of nuclear power. And in many countries understand that. In Germany, today introduced a moratorium on the extension of the operation of nuclear power plants. China and India, accidents at Japanese nuclear power plant was forced to begin to revise their plans for the development of nuclear energy. But Russia, according to Vladimir Putin "has no plans to change our plans." Probably the best prime minister understands the situation that occurs in Japan than the nuclear industry specialists, and therefore sees no reason to adjust the energy development strategy in Russia.

Now the world's attention riveted to what is happening in Japan. The earthquake and tsunami affected a huge number of people, many were killed. We sincerely condole with the people of Japan. But now, when natural disasters have resulted in the greatest danger have become a nuclear power station. Serious problems with the cooling observed in several reactors. Already there have been releases of radioactive substances into the atmosphere. At the same time information from the power industry, and government agencies in Japan, limited, or not quite complete. Greenpeace is monitoring the situation round the clock, and plans to place the incoming information, as long as there is not eliminated emergency.

Tsunami has been one of the most important, yet disaster natural occurrences that people across the globe have experienced. Until 2004, tsunamis were only considered were to ...