Why Japan’s Response To Fukushima Radiation Failed While Utah’s Response Succeeded

Why Japan’s Response To Fukushima Radiation Failed While Utah’s Response Succeeded

Above-ground atomic bomb test at the Nevada Test Site while troops look on. These clouds of material ... [+] often wafted over to Utah during the 1950s.



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In 1953, the United States detonated above-ground nuclear weapons during tests at the Nevada Test Site, like many years following WWII.

In 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown occurred in Japan.

Both events spread radioactive material over many miles and over population centers.

Neither event resulted in any health effects from that radiation.

But the response to the Fukushima event was disastrous because of the irrational and misinformed fear of radiation. That fear, not radiation, killed at least 1,600 people and destroyed the lives of at least 200,000 people. That fear seriously harmed the entire economy of Japan, stopped fishing industry and other agriculture in that area and, overnight, reversed all of that country's progress in addressing climate change.



The Utah tests spread 2 to 3 times the radiation that Fukushima spread, over the people of Utah, particularly St. George. Like Fukushima, no one was hurt, there were never any increase in cancer rates, and no one died as a result. The