The announcement on 12 April 2011 of an increase of the
Fukushima event from 5 to 7 – the highest level on the IAEA’s
International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) – has given the
misleading impression that it was as bad as the Chernobyl
accident. This impression has been exploited in anti-nuclear
propaganda. There is actually no possibility that the physical
health consequences of damage to the Fukushima plants will get
anywhere near those of Chernobyl. The INES (illustration below,
copied from Wikipedia ) divides nuclear incidents and accidents
into seven levels, based on off-site effects, on-site effects,
and degradation of the nuclear plant’s “defence in depth”.
Before 12 April 2011, only one accident – at Chernobyl in 1986 –
had been rated at Level 7. The accident at Three Mile Island in
1979 was rated Level 5. The accident at Chernobyl was the worst
that could happen: Safety and protection systems failed and
there was a full core meltdown in a reactor that had no
containment – which is an essential engineere