Radiation Leak Twice the Original Estimate

New estimates on how much radiation was actually released in the early weeks of Japan's nuclear crisis don't bode well for residents' health.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant released twice as much radiation in the first week after the earthquake and tsunami as was originally believed, according to the Japanese nuclear safety agency. The admission follows another last week that three of the reactors at Fukushima melted down in the days after the March 11 natural disaster, raising questions over how much radiation nearby residents were exposed to. The refined estimates concluded that the Fukushima disaster still only released 15 per cent of the radiation leaked in the Chernobyl crisis, but it will certainly add to the criticisms that the Japanese government and the agency that ran the power plant were slow to react and underestimated the threats before them.