It is difficult adequately to express the enormity of the catastrophe facing Japan, having been hit with not one but two natural disasters.

The earthquake was bad enough, but as fresh footage of the tsunami and its appalling consequences show, the destruction wrought by the waters was perhaps uniquely devastating.

What makes this tragedy even worse, however, is the unfolding story of the dangers posed by the out of control nuclear plant at Fukushima, one of the 25 largest such power stations in the world.

The risks posed by the explosive release of nuclear material from the core of the reactors are hard for lay people to take in but it is no coincidence, as Bloomberg reported on Monday, that the Hiroshima-based Japanese research centre that has studied atomic bomb survivors for 35 years will send scientists to monitor the health effects of what is happening in Fukushima.

It is a further chilling echo of the consequences of the uncontrolled release of radiation into the atmosphere and a reminder of why the country is gripped by the fear of what could happen.

For the West, far removed from any direct impact, it is also a reminder – a reminder of Chernobyl, the only level seven incident event on the International Nuclear Event Scale, in 1986 and of Three Mile Island, which in 1979 experienced a partial core meltdown.

Both were devastating situations and represented huge setbacks for the nuclear industry because of safety concerns.

Over the years, those have died away to the point where in an energy-hungry, carbon conscious world it is even being promoted as a sort of ‘green’ source of generation.

It is not.

It might not rely on fossil fuel but it produces quantities of lethally radioactive waste which take 10,000 years to decay to the point of public safety and is scattered in 420 global locations.

This material is also on our doorstep, just nine miles from Alderney, where spent Japanese fuel is reprocessed at Cap de la Hague, and at Flamanville, 30 miles from Guernsey, where nuclear reactors similar to those used at Three Mile Island produce French electricity, which we import.

It is truly a small, and risk-filled, world in which we live.