comptrast
let's compare and contrast the two level 7 nuclear catastrophes. chernobyl was caused by human incompetence. fukushima was an act of god. one reactor in chernobyl blew up dumping 1-9 billion curies of radioactive stuff into the environment. at fukushima, three reactors were breached and leaked some 80 million curies. we're all kinda guessing at the numbers. so take them with a grain of salt. chernobyl is now encased in a concrete grave. fukushima is still leaking. but less every week. chernobyl is in the middle of nowhere. fukushima is in a city of millions. chernobyl doubled the background radiation dose in the united states. yowch! fukushima's impact will take years to quantify. it's kinda weird that they get the same rating. heh. fukushima is a 7 by definition, sure. but man, looking at the numbers, chernobyl should be an 8. if god said, i'm really sorry but i'm going to nuke one of your nuclear power plants. but i am a merciful god and i'll let you choose an explosion like chernobyl or a massive leak like fukushima. heh. i'll take fukushima every time. first, there's 10x to 100x less radiation. second, it's spread out over a much longer time period. which is way way easier on us biological lifeforms. and third, we can blame god instead of man.