This comes down to the same issue that blighted the early days of the Large Hadron Collider. Scientific language vs. journalistic interpretation.

A scientist cannot say "there is no chance" of something occurring. To do so in almost every scenario would be to lie. The fact that the chance of the LHC producing a black hole that gobbles up the Earth is so small to be virtually indistinguishable from zero to anyone who doesn't understand "10^-30" doesn't make saying it is zero any less of a lie.

And so they say that there is a tiny chance of said black hole and the media goes wild (and a few crazy people kill themselves and their pets in preparation).

And so the same thing happened here. The scientists say that small amounts of radiation may reach Tokyo, or talk about background radiation levels (which are a constant thing we are exposed to every day) and everyone reaches for their face masks, plane tickets and tinfoil hats.

A very good article Here

Chernobyl pics
Interestingly, "the area around the Chernobyl plant will not be safe for human habitation for up to 900 years".
Also, the Ukraine govt. is trying raise funds to build a structure to surround the ageing sarchophagus around reactor 4.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit was 2011:04:27:08:09:34 by KidKruger.

Due to its contamination by plutonium isotopes, the village of Pripyat cannot be inhabited for another 24,000 years:
Town will be empty a long time

That's a lot of keep out signs to maintain.

Fukushima radiation map -

[www.youtube.com]