Following the terrible and recent events in Japan, I can't help wonder if that country will ever recover fully.

Today I heard on the news that economists and the World Bank estimate it will take 5 years and 230 Billion $ to rebuild Japan to its 2010 levels.

To add to the current disaster in the country, several of their nuclear power stations are threatening to go ballistic - as in ballistic nuclear convulsions - or blow the heck up and spread radiation all over the country and Pacific!

Looking at the country as a whole, nuclear power is second on their list of power distribution. Only coal, geothermal and hydro power combined create more electricity than Nuclear. In other words they are reliant upon nuclear power.

On the left is a Satellite photo taken several days ago showing one of the nuclear power reactors (reactor 2 I believe), which had been spewing toxic radiation into the air for several hours.

In total there are 6 reactors at this plant, which is just one of many located across the country. They were built to withstand earthquakes and other natural disasters, but it appears certain safeguards - ion case of multiple natural disasters were never added to the scenario.

Of the six reactors, 2 are now said to be under control, 2 others are said to be stable, and the remaining 2 are in danger of overheating. One of the six was supposed to be decommissioned this year.

According to today's news, the plant - and it's back-up systems - had not been inspected in recent weeks when they were due. But would those inspections have mattered? They had several safeguards in place already, and no one could have predicted the scope of the disasters to strike the North Side.

My hat is off to the 420 employees who are risking their lives to bring the reactors under control and many of them realize its a suicide mission. About 60 people have been on duty since this began, with the plant slowly adding more employees and rotating short shifts.

The word coming from the Japanese government is that radiation levels are still in the tolerable zone in the area thats been evacuated. The word coming from the media across the country is that radiation levels are high in food and water sources in the North and may have devastating, future effects on wildlife and fish.

While I applaud the Japanese government for all their efforts in this trying time, it behooves them to tell the population the truth about this situation. From news sources, this could well turn out worse than Chernobyl, which - years later - is still a wasteland.

Japan is a small country with a huge population. Having an area the size of PEI roped off for nuclear fallout will stress their country even further. This area will not be usable for years if not generations. This means no farming, no fishing, no hunting, no employment.

This map shows Japan as a whole. Section Number 8 (in green) and parts of section 39, 24 and 45 are in ever-increasing danger of radiation fallout from any potential-future nuclear meltdowns. Some of these areas have already experienced dangerous levels of radiation and a 50 km section surrounding the plants has been cordoned off to human beings. The earthquake and Tsunami did the most damage in section 8.

With all the natural disasters we've seen over the past 3-4 years, is anywhere on this planet safe to build nuclear reactors for power generation? In Japan's case, main power went out, back-up systems went out after a short time and the back-up to the back-ups were not meant for long-term usage and failed within hours.

Now, while I'm mostly talking about the prolific potential for nuclear disaster, I feel very much for those citizens caught up in all this. Those whose entire lives were washed away in seconds. Their homes destroyed, the company they worked for washed away, many of their friends or loved ones missing or dead.... I'm sure none of them woke up that morning expecting this - put yourselves in their shoes if you are on the fence about sending a donation to the Red Cross!

I seriously hope, for the future of Japan and her people - that they choose NOT to rebuild nuclear power stations and aim at wind or solar power instead.