In this article found in The New York Times the questions which are brought up are about the impacts of radiation and the cleanup effort on the environment as it will spread through the air and into the water sources.
The nuclear impacts on the environment are not only in Japan and in the close vicinity of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, but have been finding there way to other parts of the globe. This level of contamination is not completely known and what the future impacts will be on the environment is unclear. Chernobyl was a disaster which has tainted a specific area in Russia for hundreds of years. While there was spread of the radiation due to wind and other things which made the disaster in Russia affect other areas, the global impact of Chernobyl is nowhere near what Fukushima will end up being.
With the contamination of water and wind bringing this radioactive material farther from the area in which it happened there will be large consequences on the plant and animal life over a larger range. The true range of the impacts that radiation and other chemicals can have on animal and plant life is not completely known, but is nothing good for the sustainability of the environment. Abandoning these areas is good for the short term health of the population, but not trying to cleanup these areas sooner than later will lead to larger health impacts. As chemicals make their way into the water, the question has to be how far and deep is the contamination moving? Will the fish be poisoned and how far of a range will it be safe to eat the food in the surrounding areas? This is a case of population disturbance dealing with a man-made impact. The habitat's sustainability will limit the amount of people who can live there and with ever expanding population numbers this area around Fukushima will not have an environment that can sustain the life it used to sustain.
Cost of cleanup is a major issue. These chemicals are so costly to clean even small parts of out of the environment and the radiation can never be removed through financial means. With all countries struggling in this global economy the question is how can anyone afford this kind of a cleanup effort? The answer is that no one can handle a cleanup on this level, and this is why other countries are needed to help in the recovery, but their own economies are in the trash too. I feel that this is a horrible event which was only made worse by the need for cheap energy which is said to be safe until events like this happen. This area will be contaminated for hundreds of years to come, but the real question still remains on how this event will impact the earth's sustainability. This is why cleanup, sooner rather than later is the most important choice to make.
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