Atomic Power And Nuclear Power

On March 11, 2011 an earthquake that measured 9.3 Richter scale occurred 43 miles of the coast of Northern Japan. This caused tremendous amounts of damage to the island of Tohouku. What happened is the quake initially destroyed buildings and property. However, a tsunami occurred, which devastated the region and the Fukushima nuclear power plant. ("Fukushima Accident")

When an 9.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Japan on March 11th, 2011, it was the first of a series of horrific events that Japan would be forced to endure. Many homes, families, properties, and belongings were lost on that day. And when the tsunami rolled over the island, many believed that it was over for them. Not only had people’s lives been put in disarray and desolation, but there had not even been simple necessities available. Food. Water. Communications. And electricity. When the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant had been hit by the earthquake and tsunami, the reactors were shut down and so was the electricity. Over the course of months the reactors suffered, extreme heat, fires, hydrogen explosions, and radiation exposures. At the time,

A huge earthquake with size of 8.9 has struck the northeastern coast of Japan on March 11, 2011. It was the fourth greatest in present recorded history. The few minutes of earthquake trigged massive tsunami, as high as thirty meters destroying 500 kilometers of Japan northeastern coast. Effect of the earthquake and tsunami incited a nuclear disaster in one of the few nuclear power plants along the eastern coast—Fukushima Daiichi, had and worked by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). The Fukushima Daiichi plant consolidated six nuclear reactors, three of which were in operation, with the rest encountering routine upkeep. All reactors close down successfully immediately imitating the

On March 11th, 2011 Northeastern Japan was hit with a magnitude 9 earthquake, which led to a tsunami (Oskin, 2015). Two disasters struck Japan and made an impact globally. An estimate of 230,000 homes were destroyed, leaving individuals without shelter, food, or clothes (Oskin, 2015). The disasters kept growing once officials realized the tsunami had taken a nuclear power plan, leaving the area with a level seven nuclear meltdown and radioactive water (Oskin, 2015). Japan is still recovering from the disasters and debris and toxins are being found washed up on shore all around the world (Oskin, 2015).

In 2011 Japan was struck by a 9.0 earthquake followed by a devastating tsunami, leaving them with the responsibility to clean up the mess it made. The earthquake created a wave which hit Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant causing many problems. Radioactive leaks were a major problem which was a result of the tsunami. Radiation began to contaminate the Pacific ocean which impacted the fish in it as well. Radiation also contaminated underground water sources because of unreachable fuel rods stored in an unstable building. This tsunami has created a great deal of problems for the citizens of Japan.

Small pellets of slightly enriched uranium would be put into containers called fuel rods, then set up into a line, called a fuel assembly, and positioned into a pressure tube. The tube, cooled by pressurized water, is allowed to boil until reaching about 290 degrees Celsius. The assembly can be lifted into and out of the reactor, allowing fuel replenishment during reactor operation. Graphite blocks surround the pressure tubes in order to act as a moderator to “slow down the neutrons released during fission so that a continuous fission chain can be maintained.” Boron carbide control rods are also supposed to absorb neutrons in order to provide automatic, manual, or emergency control. If there were ever a deviation in operation parameters, the rods would be dropped into the core to reduce or stop reactor activity. Although, Chernobyl had certain measures in place to stop a reactor in case of emergency or overheating, the reactors had characteristics deemed unsafe (“Appendix to Nuclear Power Reactors”).

Despite citizens opposed nuclear power plants, the government positions nuclear power plants as "important baseload power supplies" and shows the posture to utilize it as well as before nuclear accident six years ago, government decided to "reduce it as much as possible". In other words, people's resistance failed. The government wants to supply stable electricity at low cost, and Japan is an island country with few resources, and if there is no nuclear power will be insufficient when it is emergency. In addition, from the dangers of nuclear accident occurrence, citizens raise demonstrations or requests compensation. There are many people who oppose restarting in Japan because there are many people who think that safety is more important than

Nuclear fission is a cost-effective, and relatively clean way to generate power. Since, the mid-1940’s, with the formation of the first atomic bombs, engineers have worked on improving nuclear power. In the 1970’s and 80’s nuclear power plants were built in cities to provide power for homes, workplaces, and other facets of life. Nuclear reactions were not well understood by the general public and therefore nuclear engineers inherited a certain status. Also as a result, nuclear power plants raised concerns for many Americans. The chances of a nuclear reactor failure were very slim, however, the consequences were devastating. Engineers feared that if the general public knew of the possible consequences that there would be massive amounts of unnecessary fear. As a result, operators of nuclear reactors were not informed of procedures to follow in the event of an emergency.

Beginning in 1941 the exploration of uranium 235 and the atomic bomb began. The bomb would be used against Japan to end the deadly encounters during World War II in exchange for unconditional surrender. In 1945 the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima killing over 190,000 people and then another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki killing about 70,000 people. Japan surrendered bringing an end to the war but this was only the beginning of what is known as the nuclear age.

On Friday March 11th 2011 at 2:46 pm, Japan’s Eastern coast was hit with an earthquake of a 9.0 magnitude. Following the quake, an 18 foot tsunami was triggered causing the pre existing damage to be even more sever. The tsunami caused the AC power to disable in 3 of the plants, which kept the cooling system from working. As a result, hydrogen in the exploded in the fuel rods which stated the release of the large amounts of radioactive material into the surrounding area.The quake and tsunami alone caused 15,893 people to lose their lives. Not only did this devastate the country when it happened, but the disaster is still affecting not only Japan, but surrounding areas, such as the Pacific ocean and parts of the U.S.

William Tucker, journalist for the Wall Street Journal specializing in environment and energy, provides us with intriguing information in his article, "Why I Still Support Nuclear Power Even After Fukushima". Tucker explains his belief that nuclear power is still the most effective means of power with minimal risks, despite the radioactivity associated with nuclear power. Fukushima, a nuclear reactor harboring city in Japan, was devastated by a tsunami after a massive earthquake in 2011. Despite the history of Fukushima, Tucker goes as far as to say, "There are no better alternatives available" in terms of energy resources. Whereas Tucker does indeed bring up compelling points regarding

On March 11th, 2011, the northern section of Japan was hit by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, followed by a 15 meter tsunami, causing the death of over 15000 people. (Spacey) Even though the earthquake and the tsunami caused a tremendous amount of deaths in the northern region of Japan, the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plant caused a severe damage to northern Japan’s ecosystem that people still cannot go back to their homes; despite it is 4 years after the disaster. After the earthquake, the tsunami destroyed the power supply used by Fukushima’s three nuclear power stations, causing severe levels of meltdown to be occurred inside the reactors in the timespan of 3 days. It was not until 2 weeks after the tragedy, when the reactors were finally stabilized, and took several months to approach what is called a “cold shutdown condition”, in which the fission in the reactors are completely stopped.(Fukushima A)

On March 11, 2011, Japan was hit by an earthquake and a tsunami resulting in 15,894 confirmed deaths, with 2,556 people missing. This was the fourth strongest earthquake to hit in recent years with a magnitude of 9.1 (“Damage Station Police” ). However, this was not the only disaster to have struck Japan, the combination of the earthquake and tsunami led to the meltdown of a power plant in, Tōhoku region, Japan. This event became known as the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Nuclear meltdowns has contributed harm to many environments by radioactive leaks, soil contamination, and radiation exposure.

Since the first commercial plant in the 1950s, the nuclear energy sector has increased steadily. From generating 684 billion kilowatt hours worldwide in 1980, nuclear power accounted for 2,345 billion KWh in 2012 (World Bank, n.d.). While the Chernobyl accident in 1986 did not trigger any decline in the global nuclear-generated power in the following years, the Fukushima accident in 2011 did. A drop of almost 200 billion KWh from 2011 to 2012 put a hold on the previously roughly constant numbers. This decline is already visible in the 2011 data, as Japan immediately ordered a shut-down of all their 50 reactors, the last one in 2012 (Hong, Bradshaw, & Brook, May 2013). Today 31 countries operate 438 commercial nuclear power plants (IAEA - PRIS, 2015a). The following table shows the operating and under construction reactors in the world, including their current percent share in their total electricity generation.

On March 11, 2001, Japan experienced a magnitude 9.0 earthquake followed by a large tsunami that caused disastrous damage to the Fukushima-Daiichi reactors. Before 2011, one of Japan’s major power sources came from nuclear generation. 27% of Japan’s power came from the Fukushima-Daiichi reactors in coastal Sendai. While the earthquake did not cause severe damage, the tsunami damaged the infrastructure and was forced to shut down, resulting in a loss of 10 gigawatts of electricity from nuclear generation. Other plants were shut down following these due to government concern for public safety. As a result, only two reactors ran in Japan for more than a year. Japan relied heavily on nuclear power, particularly because it was it’s least expensive resource. As a way to fill this gap of power, Japan began to import heavily on natural gas, crude oil, and coal. Unfortunately, importing oil was