nuclear-news

90 million people potentially endangered near nuclear plants

Population concentration near a reactor is not a measure of danger, which depends on numerous factors including earthquake risk, quality of maintenance, regulatory oversight and the amount of radioactive material on site. But it does suggest how many people will be at risk if something does go terribly wrong, as happened in Fukushima, and in Chernobyl

90 million live within 30 km of a nuclear reactor,  Montreal Gazette, 24 April 11, Study outlines number of people at risk in case of serious accident About 90 million people worldwide live within 30 kilometres of a nuclear reactor, equivalent to the exclusion zone around Japan’s crippled Fukushima plant, a study released Friday shows.

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, according to the analysis published by Nature.

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…….Population concentration near a reactor is not a measure of danger, which depends on numerous factors including earthquake risk, quality of maintenance, regulatory oversight and the amount of radioactive material on site. But it does suggest how many people will be at risk if something does go terribly wrong, as happened in Fukushima, and in Chernobyl 25 years ago, Nature said……The analysis, co-designed by Nature’s Declan Butler, was carried out with NASA’s Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), based at Columbia University in New York…

A Google Earth map showing nuclear energy plants and populations nearby can be viewed at: http://www.nature. com/news/2011/110421/ full/472400a/box/2.html

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/million+live+within+nuclear+reactor/4663155/story.html#ixzz1KPNRMPuQ

April 24, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, safety