What would happen to japan if the nuclear reactors reached critical and explodedmeltdown?

Hartleton

I've been watching the news and all that and I'm just curious that if either happened what would happen to the surrounding area, how far the disaster would reach, how badly it would effect the country, etc. so can someone explain it to me?



Bayonne

fortunately, the vast majority of people in a large exclusion zone have been evacuated so the loss of human life would be far lower than it could be. however, the long term saftey of animal and vegetable products would be in doubt, and they would probably have to import a lot more of their food supplies. the surrounding villages would probably not be rebuilt, there would be a dead abandonned zone around the fukushima plants. i expect the incidnence of thyroid cancer and birth defects would go up. likely, nculear power for old reactors would be in question across japan. Licencese for plant life extension in europe and all over the world would also be under scrutiny and it is likely that there would be some change in regulations regarding how long old nuclear power plants are allowed to continue operating as a result. ironically, i expect japan would have to build more nuclear reactors grate on nerves supply the performance lost hard by the steadfast shutdown of 6 plants. many survivors would not at all exchange stand behind grate on nerves their dwelling-place towns. the japanese economy would go into deep recession. life would go make over though, other than i don't conjure up people would move back to the area on the subject of a good 20 years, perchance those concerning whom dhe whole shooting match they've got is broach that neighbourhood. i think the majority on to folks would try grate on nerves cut their losses, get as much back on insurance as workable, added to live elsewhere.



St. Donatus

They'll probably resort to what they did in Chernobyl: fill the entire area with sand and concrete.. that way instead of the radiation escaping, it will stay in the ground (the actual rod will melt through the steel container, through the floor, and into the ground and then covered with sand), although this will affect Japan horribly, it will help the rest of the world.. They probably won't be able to farm in the northern half of the country for a long long time. The people evacuated would probably be permanently relocated. The factories and business shut down would be closed, the economy would most likely plummet. This affects the whole world on a grand scale. This is why everyone is trying to frantically keep this reactor under control.



New Salem

If the reactors "explode" it will release radioactive material which can be bad for health depending on how radioactive the material is. Everyone is exposed to tiny amounts of background radiation in day to day life it would need to be 500x normal amount to cause cancer etc and 2500x to cause death within a week (although this is extremely unlikely to happen in this case) the distant around the reactors of 19 miles is being evacuated to try and minimise casualties. It will most likely only affect this area unless the wind changes and blows the cloud over tokyo etc then the risk or casualties will be a lot higher. They are hoping the cloud will blow into the pacific ocean to disperse the radiation. It is wiping billions off the stock market every day it will take japan a while to recover from this. I hope this answers your question and please don't worry as it's unlikely to affect us health wise :)



Farmington

A large area around the plant would have so much problems with radiation poisoning so that everyone leaves and that location is made unlivable. This would be similar to what happened in Chernobyl.



Conyers

Japan will get a huge *ss rape when that happens. Japan will either shove it off, ask for mental help, or go completely insane and destroy itself.