Fukushima nuclear leak or Chernobyl, which has a greater impact?

Although both times have caused different degrees of damage to our environment, in my understanding, Chernobyl has a greater impact from all angles. Both events released a lot of radiation, and the impact was equally profound and lasting. Chernobyl was just a reactor explosion, while three reactors in Fukushima melted down. However, the accident at Chernobyl is much more dangerous because the damage to its reactor core is very rapid and intense.

In the two accidents, the radioactive substance iodine-13 1 posed the most direct threat, but its half-life was 8 days, that is, the general radioactive substance decayed within 8 days, so its influence quickly dissipated. In the two meltdowns, the longer-term danger mainly comes from strontium -90 and cesium-137 with a half-life of 30 years. Chernobyl released much more cesium-137 than Fukushima. More importantly, the Chernobyl fire produced a towering column of radioactive smoke, which spread more widely than the radioactive materials released by Fukushima.

According to the statistics of the International Atomic Energy Agency, government officials transferred about 200,000 people from Chernobyl. A few years later, the cancer rate of children in Ukraine soared, with an increase of more than 90%. However, according to the data of the World Health Organization, the Fukushima nuclear accident did not directly lead to death or radiation cases. During this period, the Japanese government transferred about100000 residents near Fukushima.

These two disasters finally taught the world an important lesson and made people realize how dangerous nuclear energy is. No one can underestimate the safety of nuclear energy, so we still hope to nip in the bud and strictly control nuclear energy.