JAPAN'S unfolding nuclear disaster is "much bigger than Chernobyl" and could rewrite the international scale used to measure the severity of atomic accidents, a Russian expert says.   

"Chernobyl was a dirty bomb explosion. The next dirty bomb is Fukushima and it will cost much more" in economic and human terms, Natalia Mironova said.

Ms Mironova is thermodynamic engineer who became a leading anti-nuclear activist in Russia in the wake of the accident at the Soviet-built reactor in Ukraine in 1986.

"Fukushima is much bigger than Chernobyl," she said, adding that the Japanese nuclear crisis was likely to eclipse Chernobyl on the seven-point international scale used to rate nuclear disasters. 

Chernobyl, which a 2005 report by UN bodies including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) called "the most severe in the history of the nuclear power industry", was ranked a seven on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES).


But Japan's ongoing crisis, triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami three weeks ago which took down the main electricity and back-up power supplies needed to power cooling systems at several reactors at Fukushima, could be "even higher" on the INES scale, she said.

"Chernobyl was level seven and it had only one reactor and lasted only two weeks. We have now three weeks (at Fukushima) and we have four reactors which we know are in very dangerous situations," she said.

Japan's nuclear safety agency has maintained its rating of the Fukushima accident at four, while a French watchdog has upgraded it to six.

Chernobyl's death toll is hotly debated. UN agencies estimate up to 9000 people could be expected to die as a direct consequence of the accident, and the disaster will end up costing hundreds of billions of dollars.

Environmental groups such as Greenpeace say up to 100,000 people could die.   

Ms Mironova is touring the United States with other Russian anti-nuclear activists, including Tatiana Muchamedyarova and Natalia Manzurova, who worked as a "liquidator", or emergency clean-up and recovery worker, at Chernobyl.

Their visit was originally planned to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl meltdown, which occurred on April 26, 1986.

But in the wake of the disaster in Japan, Ms Mironova and her colleagues rewrote their presentations to compare the accident at Chernobyl with Fukushima.

as quoted by a RUSSIAN desperate for anything to take the stain away from their own embarrassment cause simply by shocking technology, a disregard for even the basics of safety and a political system that virtually decrees failure.

Japan was hit by twin natural disasters of a HUGE magnitude. Russia was hit by indifference and stellar incompetence.

The russian is tryign to save face and it aint working.

Dnarever wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2011 at 7:51pm:


not even close to true. Chernobyl was a MELTDOWN. Japans problems are severe but not this severe. And the day you start taking notes from a Russian on anything is the day your credibility drops.

and at least Japan had the worlds worst natural disaster in recent history to use as an excuse. The russians were simply criminally incompetent.

longweekend58 wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2011 at 7:36pm:


Whereas Japan, was hit by indifference and stellar incompetence!

Why?

Because they chose not to take note of history and properly mitigate for events that were very possible and in the case of the Tsunami, there was already history, that exceeded their mitigation attempts.

longweekend58 wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2011 at 7:55pm:



The best programmer on my team is a Russian (a Mad russian programmer).

I tend to take notice of his opinion on almost anything in his field of expertise.

The Fukushima plant was stupidly built on the coast of a country on a continental plate famous for earthquakes.


Stupid stupid stupid.


That's private corporations for you.  



Nuclear plants MUST be government owned and government regulated.

perceptions_now wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2011 at 8:06pm:


seriously. you ARE an idiot. get some help. you claim to understand history yet every time you open your mouth you demonstrate just how little you actually know.

Dnarever wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2011 at 8:15pm:


in programming... what about nuclear physics?