US researchers have released a study warning that radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan may eventually cause up to 1,300 deaths.
A US study into the Fukushima meltdowns in Japan has contradicted UN claims that radiation from the disaster will cause no severe health effects.
The head of the United Nations committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation last year predicted there would be no serious public health consequences resulting from Fukushima radiation.
But a study by researchers from Stanford University in the US warns the meltdowns could cause anywhere up to 1,300 deaths.
It also predicts the disaster could cause anywhere between 24 and 2,500 cancer cases.
The researchers used a 3D atmospheric model developed over two decades of research to predict the spread and impact of Fukushima radiation.
Topics: nuclear-issues, environment, nuclear-accident, cancer, japan
For a little bird, bee or butterfly trying to make it in the world, which is the worse place to land: Fukushima or Chernobyl? On the one hand, there’s the risk from the release of radioactive materials that occurred in Japan just over a year ago. On the other, there’s the threat of mutations from accumulated environmental contamination over the past quarter-century from the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine.