Fukushima was not a second Chernobyl

During the last three weeks I have been researching the topic of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster a lot and I found out many things. When I picked this topic for my blog, I expected the effects of the nuclear meltdown to be much more dramatic than they actually were. To be honest, I didn't know very much about the topic as I had never researched it before and just new what I heard in the news and at school. However, I learned a bit about the nuclear meltdown in Chernobyl and back then, the effects were dramatic. The city is still polluted and deserted, some people died and a lot have suffered major injuries and illnesses.
When the nuclear disaster happened there was a lot of discussion in the media and everyone wondered if we have "another Chernobyl" coming towards us. Some rumours even said that we have to be prepared for the radioactive air to come to Europe. However, even though Fukushima is described as the "biggest nuclear disaster after Chernobyl" there seems to be a pretty big gap between the two accidents. The following picture describes the caesium-137 levels around Chernobyl and Fukushima. We can see that the levels are partly the same, however much less strongly present and over a much smaller area.

http://blogs.nature.com/news/files/2012/02/Fukushima-Chernobyl-large.jpg

While I was reading articles and watching videos about the earthquake and the following nuclear meltdown I found out that the situation was not that dramatic after all. During the earthquakes and the tsunami, a lot of buildings were destroyed and some people died but not because of the nuclear meltdown. Also looking at the figures of radioactive pollution in the sea, land and air of Japan, I found out that the damage was not that big and the percentage of radioactive werde almost normal.
The probably most important reason of why the damage could have been kept so minor compared to Chernobyl was the fact that people were much more educated this time than they were 30 years ago. When the eathquakes and the tsunami hit, the possibility of a nuclear meltdown was clear to the scientists and the evacution process started quickly. This way, the biggest damage could be avoided.

Number of nuclear power plants in European countries
http://www.finfacts.ie/artman/uploads/3/Nuclear-power-Europe_dec112009.jpg

In many European countries such as Germany, nuclear power plants are still in use and people started protesting against them after what happened in Fukushima. There have been huge demostrations against nuclear power and some of them have actually been shut down. Some countries that thought about re-opening their closed power plants changed their plans after what happened in Fukushima and the public got scared. Disasters like nuclear meltdowns often create an awareness amongst the public about problems that are often forgotten about. The topic of nuclear power, it's benefits and the dangers it brings is still a broadly discussed topic and it sure will be for the following years.