Thousands were killed directly by the blast, but millions more throughout the region have been exposed to radiation levels high enough to cause cancer. Worse still, even if someone doesn't develop cancer, their unborn children and even grandchildren, will be at a higher risk for developing certain cancers.
To your main question, however, it is mostly an issue of education. The media has long made nuclear radiation into a sort of all-powerful monster. And why not? The reports from survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are horrific. Nuclear bomb tests during the 50s and 60s showed entire towns being instantly incinerated in the blink of an eye. Worst still, nuclear radiation is invisible, odorless, and tasteless. You won't know you've been exposed until, well, you die a horrible painful death from radiation sickness, or years later, die a horrible painful death from cancer.
The media has also done a horrible job about educating the public about how nuclear power works. The biggest misconceptions about nuclear power all come from the media and specifically, an American movie called "The China Syndrome". This movie came out in 1979 and was about how a nuclear power plant was covering up safety violations. The movie was a bit prophetic for right around the same time, the nuclear power plant located on Three Mile Island near New York had a leak that allowed some radiation to escape. The news media freely mixed footage from the movie in with their footage of the real life reactor. Words like "Meltdown" entered the American vocabulary even though the media wrongfully explained that a meltdown meant the reactor would explode - and then would show nuclear bomb footage to make the point.
Three Mile Island was the end of the US nuclear power program. No new nuclear power plants have been built in over 30 years. The first Obama administration was actually planning on building the first new nuclear power plant since The Three Mile Island incident but when Fukushima happened, all the old fears born of misinformation resurfaced.
Unfortunately, until this misinformation is dealt with, it's going to be very hard for the governments of the world to continue supporting nuclear power.
um the events that happened at Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Fukushima. but what they fail to realize is what caused the problem Chernobyl was people just testing the backup system, Three Mile island was a series of failures (this should help:
If even one persons DNA is altered and damaged by exposure to radiation their children will very likely have defects that will affect their ability to live a normal life.
The greenies are just stupid, and try to control everyone and everything.
I think the fear is irrattional. Maybe 50 people have died in chernobyl but that is all from hundreds of reactors over 40 some years. We dont stop driving cars even though thousands of people have died. Wind power is annoying feature in the landscape. Solar is better but they both dont provide enough energy and are relatively expensive. I think its a catastrophy that germany has forbidden nuclear reactors. They have windpower plants everywhere(almost), and it looks pretty disturbing to me. I think the greenies are influenced by satan or something.
