Radiation leaks from Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant after last week's 9.0-magnitude earthquake took place as the world marks next month the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl disaster.

The worst nuclear power plant accident in history occurred on April 24, 1986 at Chernobyl nuclear power plant, 130 km from Kiev, causing sustaining and irreparable damage to the environment and people's health.

Many nearby residents were diagnosed cancer after the tragedy, and radiation caused infertility in a lot of women in eastern Europe. Compounded by poor organization, the disaster took a turn for the worse.

"When we arrived at the exclusion zone, we had no remedies. We were young and inexperienced. We protected ourselves from radiation with iodine, as our nurse advised. At that time we just did not understand what it may cause, no one told us about possible consequences," Oleg Severinko, a then emergency worker, told Xinhua in an interview.

Reports by the United Nations say some 4,000 people had died as a result of the accident, but environmentalists believe the figures are well-underestimated, and Greenpeace insists that radiation from Chernobyl has shortened the lives of as many as 100,000.

Severinko said it has been fortunate for him to be alive still, compared with many of his colleagues.

Experts say there are currently about 200,000 Chernobyl liquidators in Ukraine -- all teetering between two worlds.

As the latest nuclear accident in Japan provides a costly opportunity to redigest the lesson of Chernobyl, the world is learning in a hard way that the importance of nuclear security can never be overstated.

Although Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano has said earlier that the current radiation leaks would not harm the human body, any premature optimism could be even more disastrous.

But a comforting fact is that Japan is not repeating what happened after the Chernobyl accident when information was kept in secret for three years from the citizens. At that time, people still hung out, walked under acid rains, and drank contaminated water.

In Japan, people are either staying at home or moving to relatives in safe places. Meanwhile, countries across the world are also evacuating their citizens from the worst-hit regions in Japan.

It is not that the use of nuclear power is inadmissible, as the 21st century is believed by many as "the Renaissance time of nuclear energy." But given that nuclear power can be both a friend and a foe, the world should also take each possible opportunity to rethink their nuclear ambitions and take preventive measures to avoid possible disasters.

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