The fear has taken the shape of reality- A 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the Fukushima Coast, and a Tsunami warning was issued.
The operator of Japan's wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant said there was no damage or spike in radiation levels at the station after the quake and many sighed in relief.
What many fail to realize, is that the damage is already in progress.
The effects of the nuclear leakage, despite the herculean efforts of the Japanese nuclear experts, have started showing their damage.
Here are just a few facts:
1. The Water Around the Reactor Has Become Highly Contaminated
According to estimates the amount of nuclear radiation that has so been released into the ocean from Fukushima is more than what was released during the entire Chernobyl disaster.
Japan itself has started showing signs of the radiation. Apart from mutated vegetation, a plague of damaged thyroids has already been reported among as many as 40 percent of the children and ancillary ailments, including cancer among elders.
2. The Radiation Is Spreading Across The Pacific Ocean At An Alarming Rate
It hasn’t stopped since.
Reuters reported in August 2013 that 300 tons of contaminated water was pouring into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima every single day. Out of which almost 20 trillion - 40 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium have already gotten into the Pacific Ocean since the Fukushima disaster first began.
According to a recent report, the California coastline is being transformed into “a dead zone”. The report cautions people against eating seafood caught from the pacific and even swimming and surfing in it.
3. The Radiation Is Here To Stay For Generations
Nuclear radiation and its effects can last for a long time.
According to World Nuclear Association, the length of nuclear radiation can last anywhere between five years to several decades. But they confess that they do not have the expertise and knowledge to sufficiently conclude how long the effects of the radiation can be noticeable within the population, soil, and water.
Radioactive elements (Iodine-131, Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 etc) are constantly coming from Fukushima and are likely to affect the health of those living the northern hemisphere for a long time to come.
According to the Wall Street Journal, it is being projected that the cleanup of Fukushima could take up to 40 years to complete and even then if the cleanup is not handled with extreme precision and care, its effects may linger and endanger lives for “for thousands of years“.
The earthquake is a reminder of an impending disaster ready to happen. However, it is more than likely that soon the moment of panic we all faced when we heard the news of the quake, will be over shadowed by that of world politics, celebrity antics and whatever else pops up on our news feeds on a daily basis.
This behavior in itself is a disaster, but one that in intangible enough not to be a problem for us.
But what must be realized that the nuclear disaster has not been averted, it is there, it has been there since 2011 and it is not an intangible as we believe. The dots are starting to show and the day they are enough to be noticed as problematic and are connected. We’ll have a web of nuclear damages that will be beyond our control.
The time is ripe not to underplay the Fukushima disaster.