London, Apr. 23: An analysis carried out by Nature and Columbia University, New York, shows that two-thirds of the world's 211 power plants have more people living within a 30-kilometre radius than the 172,000 people living within 30 kilometres of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, and therefore, they face a much greater risk to their lives.
According to the research, about 21 plants have populations larger than a million within that radius, and six have populations larger than three million.hough nuclear experts say that an objective 'danger' ranking is almost impossible because each reactor has its own unique risk profile, there are some that merit mention.
For instance, they name the 125-megawatt KANUPP plant in Karachi, Pakistan, as one that poses the maximum threat because of the population density -- 8.2 million living within 30 kilometers of the plant.
The findings of Nature 's population analysis are "scary", says Ed Lyman, a nuclear expert with the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington D.C.
The study further says that if the radius is broadened to 75 kilometers, the picture looks even more disconcerting.
According to the study, 152 nuclear power plants have over a million people living within a 75-kilometer radius.
The United States alone has nearly 16 million people within this range, followed by more than 9 million each in China, Germany and Pakistan, and 5 to 6 million in India, Taiwan and France.
When the radius is expanded to 75 km, the number of people potentially at risk in case of a nuclear accident jumps to nearly half a billion, according to the analysis published by Nature.
More than 110 million are in the U.S., 73 million in China, 57 million in India, 39 million in Germany and 33 million in Japan.
Looked at another way, more than a third of Americans live within 75 km of a nuclear power plant, and nearly half of all Germans.
Population concentration near a reactor is not a measure of danger, which depends on numerous factors including earthquake risk, quality of maintenance, regulatory oversight and the amount of radioactive material on site. But it does suggest how many people will be at risk if something does go terribly wrong, as happened in Fukushima, and in Chernobyl 25 years ago, Nature said.
About 172,000 people lived in the 30-km zone around the Japanese plant, which was hit by a 9.0-magnitude quake March 11 and then, minutes later, a devastating tsunami.
Two-thirds of the world's 211 active nuclear power plants have populations within the same radius that exceed the number of residents forced to leave their homes in Japan, the analysis revealed.
There are 21 plants in the world with at least one million people within a radius of 30 km, and for six of these plants the nearby population exceeds three million.
At the Kanupp facility in Pakistan, the figure rises to more than eight million people, although the reactor is rather small, with an output of only 125 megawatts.
By contrast, the Kuosheng and Chin Shan plants in Taiwan - each with more than five million people within 30 km - generate 1,933 and 1,208 megawatts, respectively.
At the 75-km radius, China's Guangdong and Lingao plants top the list, casting a shadow over 28 million each (including in Hong Kong).
The analysis, co-designed by Nature's Declan Butler, was carried out with NASA's Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), based at Columbia University in New York.
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