[gonehome]

Doesn't it take a while for people to die or see effects from radiation exposure (unless it's extreme?). Is there a reason to suspect that we won't see problems from what happened?

Also having land uninhabitable for thousands of years weighs pretty heavily even if the risk of failure is low.

[MichaelGG]

They originally said it'd be a few years, but the JP government is on behind, so it might take longer to decontaminate. I don't think anyone is talking more than a decade or few. Countries sell land, so think of it that way, at worst. The clean up is also super expensive. And, over 1000 people died from evacuation-related issues. I guess that's just a factor when you move older people around, for any reason. So, yes Fukushima sucked, but in context, given the incompetence, it seems very encouraging. Unless we act even more stupid and get a large disaster, why would it be worse?

From what I've read, the estimates of cancer are really low. But you're right, there might be a few directly related deaths over the next several decades.

You'd think this would result in an attitude of wanting to push newer designs and so on, but running away is a more human reaction, it seems. :(

[ptaipale]

> over 1000 people died from evacuation-related issues.

As if the fact that a very very large tsunami hit a densely populated area did not have an impact.

Of course, a lot of people were killed by Fukushima - due to the shutdown of other nuclear reactors, which necessitated reducing electricity consumption, i.e. turning off A/C in buildings, effectively killing lots of old and weak people.

[lettergram]

It's not thousands of years, though it will likely be a few hundred[1].

[1] http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/area-around-cherno...