( CNN ) -- After the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster , Soviet soldiers had to do the hard , potentially risky , cleanup job . Fears of radiation exposure , sickness and death were rampant . In the months after , however , it was n't the rate of cancer that increased : it was the rate of suicide . This is now quoted widely in nuclear industry circles as a textbook case of `` radiophobia . '' We are hard-wired , it seems , to react with fear to what we do n't understand . It 's what we all learn as children : remember the story of Chicken Little ? The sky is falling . Dan Polanski is in demand around the world as an expert on weapons of mass destruction . CNN has hired him to advise us on the ground about radiation levels and the potential risks . He says right now there is a fear overload and a shortage of fact . `` When we talk about radiophobia , people hear that word 'radiation ' and immediately imagine the worst -- we 're all going to die and turn into the Toxic Avenger and start mutating , '' he says . The images from the Fukushima nuclear emergency have not helped ease fears . Pictures of a ruined power plant , smoke billowing into the sky after explosions and fires and talk of a potential meltdown have sparked panic . Too many people watching television images , fire-trucks and choppers dumping water on the reactors , smacked of last-ditch desperation . In Tokyo , foreigners have headed for the exits . Long lines have formed at the immigration department ; at the airport people line up for flights . Many say the same thing : They just do n't trust what they 're told . The Japanese government has struggled with communication . Critics say it is often too little , too late . There 's a worrying lack of detail . The Tokyo Electric Power Co. , which runs the Daiichi plant , has been accused of having a questionable record when it comes to the truth . Officials in Japan may have consistently told people that radiation levels pose no risk to health , but few here are willing to bet their life on that . Terumi Tanaka survived the atomic bomb of Nagasaki . He knows about nuclear fear and suspects people are not getting the truth here . `` The company is hiding information . They are lying about it ; they 're not disclosing the risk , '' he says . So what are the available facts as they stand right now ? Take a comparison with Chernobyl . In the Soviet Union , reactor workers died within weeks . In the final phase of that disaster , radiation hit levels of 6,000 millisieverts per hour . Fukushima Daiichi 's peak has been 400 millisieverts per hour , and that 's at the red hot center of the plant itself . According to the World Nuclear Association , you need exposure to 1,000 millisieverts per hour before suffering radiation sickness . Even for the heroic workers still in the plant , prolonged exposure , says Polanski , could make them sick , but it will not kill them . `` No , not at all . Four hundred millisieverts sounds scary , but it 's not , '' he says . A caveat : this emergency is in uncharted territory , it could always take a turn for the worse . After a week of trying everything and resorting to dropping water from helicopters , several reactors are still overheating . In fact , Japan 's nuclear safety agency has now raised the crisis to level 5 on the nuclear event scale . That 's the same rating as the partial meltdown of the nuclear plant at Three Mile Island in the United States in 1979 . But that may be a welcome comparison . At Three Mile Island , radioactive materials were contained within the reactors . No deaths were directly linked to the event , and fallout to the immediate community was measured to be harmless . Still more than 30 years later , some people question the official version . Just like Japan today there is a gap between what people are told and what they choose to believe . Amid crisis , fact whispers and fear screams .
We are hard - wired to react with fear to what we do n't know , Grant says . He says there is a fear overload and a shortage of fear . Officials in Washington have told people that radiation levels pose no threat to them . A caveat : this emergency is in uncharted territory .