This article was about the town Pripyat. A brand new city, only 16 years old, that was contaminated by the nuclear fallout after the accident at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl. The power plant exploded and caused thousands of people to evacuate even though most of them got sick anyway. Some people are now considering the fact that the nuclear power plant in Fukushima suffered heavy damage after an underwater earthquake that caused a tsunami. Most experts say that the environment, humans toll and radioactive pollution won’t be as great as it was after Chernobyl, but the duration of the evacuation zone around Fukushima remains unknown and the cleanup of the plant will last decades. Also the cost to clean it up will be much more expensive for Japan due to higher cleanup standards.
The key points in the article is the comparison between Japan’s nuclear problem to Chernobyl’s. I thought it was interesting that even though Chernobyl’s disaster is worse physically, Fukushima is going to cost a lot more to clean up. Reading this article almost makes me want to make a journey to one of the ghostly suburbs of Chernobyl just to see what it’s like there.
