Excerpts from Op-Ed by Quamrul Haider, Ph.D., Chair of Dept. of Physics at Fordham University, Dec 4, 2014 (emphasis added):

• The fraternity of nuclear scientists… create the impression… their extremely risky projects have been carefully thought out in every detail and are inspired by the spirit of greatest responsibility… A large section of the scientific community… believes [their accident simulations are] about as reliable as tomorrow’s weather forecast [and] that by building nuclear power plants in populated areas, the whole world becomes an experimental laboratory with human beings as guinea pigs.
• There is always the possibility of a major disaster. The basic difference between nuclear and other industrial accidents lies in the long-range repercussions… one could forget about the havoc wrought, for example, by the explosion of a gas pipeline or the breaching of a dam… But an accident in a nuclear power plant, such as a reactor getting out of control, is capable of doing more than immediate harm. Examples of the deadly long-term effects of a reactor accident are Chernobyl and Fukushima [which] will linger on for ages to haunt the future generations. Among the survivors there will be many cases of permanent sterility, increase of genetic mutation in our progenies, and a shortened life span as a result of cancer and other radiogenic diseases.
• [It’s] irresponsible and misleading to suppress the consequences of radiation…[A]ttempts are made… to blind the people by equating nuclear accidents with more familiar hazards… an unlimited risk is falsely portrayed as a limited one and glossed over in a manner that is not only unconscionable, but also unpardonable. Thesedeceptions are further camouflaged by the way in which they are presented to the public… the far-reaching consequences of lethal radiation are overly simplified. In the post-Chernobyl and post-Fukushima era, these… do not hold water.
• Wars, plagues, famines and natural disasters were known as the four horsemen of the apocalypse… After Chernobyl and Fukushima, nuclear accidents can be added [as another] horseman of the apocalypse
• .
• Critics describe nuclear reactor as one of the most dangerous technological beasts that mankind has devised and nuclear accident as “A Nuclear War without a War.”
• The consequences can assume dimensions that do not take second place to the consequences of earthquake… and in a way actually exceeds them.

R/V Marai — Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC, administered by gov’t of Japan): The great earthquake [and] tsunami with its height of more than 10 m attacked mainly the Pacific coastline of Tohoku district and approximately thirty thousand people were killed, missing or injured. What is worse is that Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant was seriously damaged… a gigantic radiation has been leaking to the atmosphere, land and ocean. After this record crisis, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) requested JAMSTEC… monitor [the] level of radiation.

See more about Dr. Haider’s nuclear experience here