A Chernobyl-like accident at Taiwan's planned fourth nuclear plant would immediately kill more than 8,700 people in the northern part of the island and almost 3.5 million more from radiation-related illnesses such as cancer, Japanese researchers warned Thursday.
Fatalities would top 28,000, or 0.1 percent of the island's population, if people were not evacuated from northern Taiwan within a week of such an accident, the scientists said in a report, which recommends that the Taipei government abandon the controversial project.
Those dying from cancer and other aftereffects of radiation exposure would total at least 7.1 million, or 30 percent of Taiwan's population, if evacuations were to take longer than a week, they said.
"An early evacuation effectively decreases the (number of) victims, but cannot be accomplished in overcrowded cities in the northern part of Taiwan," they said in the report.