With more than 400 nuclear reactors producing electricity in the world, the interactive map (1) highlights that hundreds of millions of people live within areas around reactors that could become highly contaminated and would have to be evacuated in the event of a nuclear accident. The interactive map, with data from Nature magazine (2), works with Facebook and Twitter to let users alert others to the risk of a nearby nuclear accident.
“We've released this interactive map so that people can find out how close they are to the next Fukushima disaster and can then alert others to the risks,” said Aslihan Tumer, Greenpeace International nuclear campaigner.
On Tuesday, Greenpeace released its “Lessons from Fukushima” report (3) showing that while the tsunami that hit Japan's east coast on March 11, 2011 may have triggered the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant it was the failures of the Japanese Government, regulators and the nuclear industry that resulted in tragedy. The key conclusion to be drawn from the report is that this human-made nuclear disaster could be repeated at any nuclear plant around the world, putting millions at risk.
“The message from our Lessons from Fukushima report is that the Fukushima disaster is not just about Japan. The failures we've seen in Japan are repeated everywhere there are reactors and could lead to a major accident in any country,” said Tumer. “More than 150,000 people had to evacuate from around Fukushima Daiichi, but they still have not been properly compensated and so cannot rebuild their lives. Hundreds of thousands of others remain in highly contaminated areas, putting them at risk of long-term illnesses.”
Japan’s decision to base evacuation from Fukushima radiation on small circular geographical zones around the plant was inadequate as radiation does not travel uniformly outwards but travels in corridors due to factors such as prevailing winds and topography. A nuclear disaster may require evacuation several hundred kilometers from an accident. Greenpeace’s on line tool shows the numbers who would have to be evacuated at distances of up to 300 km for a worst-case accident.
Japanese authorities have certified that 573 people have died already from causes related to the nuclear disaster (4). They were not killed by direct radiation but they would not have died if there hadn't been a nuclear disaster.
“Since the next nuclear disaster could happen anywhere there is a reactor, the terrible consequences of an accident will be the fault of the government in that country for continuing to ignore the risks and continuing to behave as if nuclear energy is safe,” said Tumer. “The only way to deal with the threats of nuclear accidents is to phase out reactors and replace them with energy efficiency and renewable energy.”
Ends
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning organisation that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment, and to promote peace.
Contacts:
Greg McNevin, Greenpeace International Communications, 
, +81 80 5416 6507
Brian Blomme, Greenpeace International Communications, 
, +31 06 188 30 281Greenpeace International Press Desk Hotline, Amsterdam +31 20 7182470
For more on Greenpeace’s work in Fukushima, visit: http://www.greenpeace.org/fukushima
Receive Greenpeace International press releases via Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/greenpeacepress
Notes:
1) Link to the interactive map on nuclear risks: www.greenpeace.org/fukushima
2) Source of map and population data: Declan Butler: Reactors, residents and risk, Nature http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110421/full/472400a.html Data contributors, and how data were generated http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110421/full/472400a.html
3) Link to the Executive Summary and the Lessons from Fukushimareport: http://www.greenpeace.org/fukushima-lessons
4) 573 deaths certified as related to Fukushima nuclear disaster: The Daily Yomiuri Online: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120204003191.htm
The Greenpeace multi-media presentation Shadowlands has stories of some of the victims of the Fukushima disaster: www.greenpeace.org/fukushima