What is going to happen to Japan?

Question:

Im wondering if their going to try and rebuild the country or just evacuate because of the nuclear power plants.

Answer:

Asking this question is exactly the same as asking if the U.S. will be evacuated because of hurricane Katrina. The only rebuilding that needs to be done is from the tsunami damage to some coastal areas. Japan is the size of California. The power plant problem affects about 8 km and there is a 30 km radius where people have been evacuated from as a precaution. No one has been injured except for two workers who were drowned by the tsunami and one who died of a heart attack, he was sixty. No workers have exceeded the allowed radiation dosage so there are not expected to be any long term effects. None of the public is expected to have any radiation sickness either.

If anything, the situation shows how safe nuclear power is. Consider that forty year old plants were hit with an earthquake five times the strength they were designed for and yet they still shut down safely. The generators came on like they were supposed to when grid power was cut. Then the tsunami hit and the generators were wiped out. However, the battery backup still worked for the designed eight hours. The problem happened when no new generators could be put in. Even so the problems have been minimal--media scare mongering for ratings not withstanding.

Here is an informative article describing the situation:
http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/13/fu…

And here is where you find current, factual status information:
http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsun…
Historical status:
http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/2011…

And a slide presentation that describes the effects:
http://www.slideshare.net/iaea/radiologi…

And here is a chart that helps make sense of the numbers:
http://www.xkcd.com/radiation/