Japan's Nuclear Plant Turning into a Disaster

I've been watching the news and it's just getting worse. (By the way, I know that those of you who are reading this are probably saying, "DUDE! I can read this stuff for myself!" But this is also a journal for myself, and I want to put my feelings down about what's going on.)

Early reports suggested that problems with the power plant wouldn't approach that of Three Mile Island, and most certainly not Chernobyl. Well, as the days go by and the issues have mounted, they are now saying it's on par with Three Mile Island. Experts in the field said days ago that this crisis could never approach the disaster of Chernobyl. I wonder if they are right.

In SF Gate today they reported, "Nuke crisis raised: Level 5. Japan's nuclear safety agency ratcheted up its rating for the Fukushima crisis, reclassifying the nuclear accident from Level 4 to Level 5 on a seven-level international scale. The International Nuclear Event Scale defines a Level 4 incident as having local consequences and a Level 5 as having wider consequences. The 1986 Chernobyl disaster was rated as 7."

I am simultaneously not surprised and horrified to find out that Japan has been understating the problems they've been having. Furthermore, reacted slowly and kept everyone in the dark, purposely. Then we come to find that their facilities were not prepared for a disaster like this. They've been negligent for YEARS with all kinds of serious problems that have not been addressed or fixed. They knew it and didn't say anything. They are finally being forced to admit that they've had many grievous problems and that they weren't prepared for this disaster. That's great.

Now that they've finally admitted that they have a serious problem, Japan is allowing outside nations to help. Things will hopefully begin getting better in the coming days; I hope they will soon be able to reduce the amount of radioactive particles being released into the environment.