The loss of life from what happened in Chernobyl in my opinion is sometimes underestimated. Early theoretical projections were based on estimates of the consequences of low level radiation that are no longer accepted. Some of the most cited studies that give empirical results well below those numbers managed to not count a large number of people. So I'l be glad if it is not that bad in Japan. For us in the U.S. , there is little to worry about. Radiation from Japan should hit Washington Coast where I live around the 21st, but most of the radioactive particles will drop into the ocean between Japan and here so, as Ginger noted, probably a really tiny increased risk by the time it gets here. The one remaining coal plant in our state which is near me is more of a health risk to our state, and probably over its life cycle is responsible for more radiation than your average nuclear power plant. It is certainly responsible for exposing me personally to more radiation than all the accidents in Japan will be.

To move from garcentricity, it will also be diluted enough in the ocean not to be noticeable to fish and the rest of the world too. Area immediately off coast of Japan, I don't know enough to say. Other nations a lot closer to Japan than we are, I don't know.

Well, to Fred's point, Wikipedia tells me that two of the worst natural disasters of the 20th century happened during my childhood, during the 70s and I've never heard of them.

The 1976 Tangshen earthquake in China killed between 242,000 and 779,000 people.

The 1970 Bhola cyclone killed between 300,000 and 500,000 people in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan).

The 1972 Iran blizzard was also the worst of the century, killing 4,000.

Also in 1975 there was a flood in China that killed 231,000.

I'm thinking the Maoist regime wasn't so big on saving the lives.

The Maoist regime also wasn't so big on talking about what was going on in China.

Interesting, Germany is shutting down all seven of its pre-1980 nuclear power plants.

The Maoist regime also wasn't so big on talking about what was going on in China.

That too. I remember when I was first looking up big natural disasters in the Guiness Book of World Records (which I purchased religiously as a kid) and being surprised by the 1931 floods in China being the worst with 2.5 to 3.1 million people killed. That's about four times the population of San Francisco.

Whew. Home. Done working for now. Wow. I feel like crap.

The 1970 Bhola cyclone killed between 300,000 and 500,000 people in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan).

I only know of this disaster because of the Ravi Shankar concert for Bangladesh. We must have had that record when I was growing up. But I fully admit that I had absolutely no conception of the kind of destruction it must have wrought.

Aha! Wikipedia validates me.

"The 2000s experienced some of the worst and most destructive natural disasters in history."

"The 2000s experienced some of the worst and most destructive natural disasters in history."

That's not a good thing, you know.

It'll never beat 65 Billion years BC. That was a real disaster. Disasters these days don't know shit.