Authorities in Japan have evacuated the area around a nuclear
power plant after its reactor's cooling system failed following
Friday's massive earthquake. Pressure began building overnight
at the Fukushima Daiichi plant north of Tokyo, prompting
officials to consider venting radioactive vapor on Saturday. The
situation has prompted analysts to debate whether nuclear power
is safe to use in earthquake-prone regions. Japan has 55 nuclear
power plants that produce nearly one-third of the country’s
electrical output. Its also lies in one of the most seismically
active zones in the world, known as the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Nuclear waste specialist Kevin Kamps at nuclear watchdog Beyond
Nuclear says these two factors put Japan at a big risk. "An
earthquake that damages multiple levels of the safety systems
can lead to a troubled situation very quickly." Kamps said the
worst case scenario for the Fukushima Daiichi plant would be
what happened at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine in
1986, when the radioact