The World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2005 issued a report attributing only 43 human deaths directly to the Chernobyl disaster and estimating an additional 4,000 fatal cancers.
Serra Vega claims it would be an "economic disaster" too, estimating it will raise electricity prices and could cost Peruvians over a billion dollars.
The death toll from the disaster is estimated at some 15,000 people, making it the most deadly volcanic eruption in Japan's history.
Maritime New Zealand, the government agency coordinating the disaster response, estimated that 350 tons of heavy fuel oil had leaked into the ocean by Thursday, creating what the government has described as the nation's worst marine environmental disaster.
In his seminal book on the famine, Tombstone, Chinese writer Yang Jisheng described Henan as the epicentre of the disaster, and estimated that about 3 million lives were lost there because of starvation.
The UK is contributing to a €3m (£2.15m) donation from the European commission to help rebuild key infrastructure, with the cost of the disaster now estimated at £30m, a large sum for this Caucasian nation.
Eqecat, a company that tracks natural disasters and estimates their cost, said it expected the storm's total economic damages to range from $10 billion to $20 billion, which includes damage to homes and cars, and business lost because of the storm.
The disaster is estimated to be costing airlines $200 million a day, but the economic damage will roll through to farms, retail establishments and nearly any other business that depends on air cargo shipments.
Dr. Helen Caldicott (letter, Oct. 31) refers to "a New York Academy of Sciences report from 2009" on the Chernobyl disaster when estimating that "nearly a million have already died from this catastrophe".
3. The cost of the Fukushima triple disaster is estimated to be from US$504 to US$630 billion.
