As the effects of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake (“upgraded” from 8.9) that occured near Sendai, Japan continues to wreak havoc in millions of Japanese lives, European countries are starting to feel queasy about their own safeties in the future concerning nuclear plants.

The 2011 Sendai Earthquake, declared the most powerful earthquake to hit Japan, disrupted significant parts of the affected region in Japan understandably causing damage to the high-densely populated areas. Sirens wailed as the earthquake cut off electricity for more than 4 million homes, caused fires, caused floods that have swept away thousands of homes, estimably killed at least 1,800 people (according to Japan’s officials; others estimate at least 10,000 have been killed) and damaged the cooling systems of a couple of Japan’s nuclear power plants which resulted in a state of emergency.

Floods, as a result of the earthquake, carried boats inland and swept away cars. Soon after, a tsunami alert was issued to more than 50 areas in the Pacific including 20 countries after the earthquake triggered a large tsunami. At least two people have died as a result of the risen waters in Indonesia and California.

Just today, an explosion inside the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant was reported.

Foreign and domestic workers are still searching for missing people in the wake of the earthquake.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed concerns regarding Germany’s own nuclear power plants. Citing Japan’s highly advanced infrastructure and how that same infrastructure showed a crack that could’ve potentially gone much more awry under the pressure of the incredibly strong earthquake, the German Chancellor urged the government to reconsider safety regulations and possible improvements to be made.

Germans who demonstrated against the German government’s plans to delay the closure of seventeen nuclear power plants again protested the plan in larger numbers. The German government announced that it would be suspending the plan immediately.

Meanwhile Great Britain and Switzerland also announced that they’ll be “strongly” reconsidering their options in improving the safety of

The European Union has called for an emergency meeting to also plan out necessary improvisions to the current nuclear power plant system.