Japan's nuclear agency said the amount of radioactive cesium released by the Fukushima plant, which was destroyed in March, is equivalent to what would be emitted if 168 atomic bombs like those that destroyed Hiroshima were detonated.
The Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the estimate, which was officially released today, was requested by a parliamentary committee.
The experts stressed, however, that it is not possible to compare a momentary bomb explosion with a continuous loss, such as that recorded in the reactors at the Fukushima plant.
According to the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper, which on Thursday released some details of the government's estimates, the Fukushima reactors, which were heavily damaged by an earthquake and tsunami last March, have so far released 15,000 terabecquerels of cesium 137. In August 1945, at the end of World War II, the atomic bomb dropped by the US military on the Japanese city of Hiroshima instantly released 89 terabecquerels of this isotope into the atmosphere, which has a radioactive period of 30 years, the same newspaper added.
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