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In reply to the discussion: So it turns out that nadinbrzezinski was correct re Fukushima [View all]AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)So fucking what. The mode of failure is so spectacularly different the comparison is ridiculous. Fukushima was bad, but WITH 3 reactors plus fuel pools, plus a fourth fuel pool, it still didn't release as much radiation as Chernobyl did. WITH ALL THAT; still a smaller disaster.
Best estimates, Chernobyl threw 5,200 PBq of radiation into the sky. Fukushima's estimates have risen from somewhere between 340 to 800 PBq, now revised up to 900PBq.
That single RBMK reactor threw more than 5x the burning, radioactive shit, into the sky, as we can figure came out of Fukushima. The vast bulk of the mass of the RBMK core came out to say hello to the world.
Fukushima has a contaminated groundwater/seep into the ocean problem that is difficult to estimate, and difficult to control, which doesn't apply to the Chernobyl site, but there's still an order of magnitude difference between the two industrial disasters.