Worldwide health effects of the #Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident
They estimate that the accident resulted in 130 cancer-related mortalities (with a lower confidence limit of 15 and upper limit of 1100) and 180 (24–1800) cancer-related morbidities worldwide.
The authors also modelled a hypothetical accident at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California, USA, predicting that such an event could result in a ~25% higher morality level due to the meteorological conditions found there.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C2EE22019A
In a reply opinion, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Burton Richter comments that “My rough analysis finds that health effects, including mortality, would have been much worse with fossil fuel used to generate the same amount of electricity as was nuclear generated.”
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C2EE22658H
NB: Of course it is not for use mere mortals to argue with nobel prize winners, but I would say that it has been a matter of luck that the health effects from Fukushima have not been far worse and I would also say that the risk of further injury from Fukushima remains high. Finally, direct human health effects are not the only ones that should be included in an impact analysis. Things like soil damage and food impacts, land use impacts, and biodiveristy impacts should be included. With an analysis like this we should look not at the actual, recorded health effects but at the health effects that were narrowly avoided plus the ones that may still occur (adjusted for probablity of occurrance) plus the other negative impacts.
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