In a novel use of existing technology and data, Nature News in conjunction with Columbia University, has created a Google Earth
map that shows the different population sizes surrounding nuclear power plants; ostensibly, to demonstrate the danger threshold of other plants worldwide, compared to the ongoing nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan.
© UnknownGoogle Earth maps show populations at risk near nuclear plants
Working with the Power Reactor Information System (PRIS) database run by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to pinpoint the location and size of nuclear plants, both existing and under construction, and Columbia University's NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center, which runs the Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project, to nail down accurate population numbers, the team was able to put together a Google Earth map that very clearly shows, via colored circles, population density around nuclear facilities.
Because Google Earth maps render the globe in a 3-D like image, it's easy to skim around and very quickly get a feeling for where the dangers lie. For example, the United States, Europe (including Russia and former members of the USSR), India and China quite obviously have the bulk of nuclear plants, while the entire continents of Africa and South America have just one each, and Australia has none.
Comment: It's a telling sign that the article ends on a dismissive tone regarding the safety of human beings. This small piece of knowledge will, perhaps, allow some of those who are awake and paying attention to make choices that will protect them and their loved ones, just as those who were awake and paying attention left the Gulf Coast early on after the oil spill.