The Japanese government has expanded the long-term evacuation radius around the Fukushima nuclear plant to 30km. The United States government is still asking to all their citizens inside an 80km radius to leave. Updated with Aussie cities.
If the federal government followed the same policy on US soil, these would be the consequences in the three most populated cities: New York, LA and Chicago.
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The maps show the nuclear power plants closest to these cities. In the case of New York, more than 20 million people in the metro area would have to be evacuated, leaving the city deserted, from Long Island to the Bronx. If there were a Fukushima-level accident at Indian Point, including the release of massive quantities of highly radioactive water, the city would be even more affected because of the Hudson River.
In the Los Angeles urban centre, 3.8 million people will be safe outside the evacuation areas from San Onofre and Diablo Canyon power plants, but the metro area (about 15 million people total) and the massive population in the cities around LA would be greatly affected.
Chicago would see at least 9.7 million people evacuated from the city and metro area.
Update: Here’s how it would look in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, courtesy of Giz AU reader Damian.
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Thanks Damian!