Fukushima Daiichi Disaster
On March 11th, 2011 an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 struck the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The actual earthquake did minimal damage to all 4 reactors. The resulting tsunami destroyed the 16 diesel backup generators dedicated to cooling the reactors. As a result of overheating, hydrogen explosions damaged Reactors 1, 2, and 3. Reactor 4 was offline for maintenance at the time, but over 1,400 fuel rods in a stored above the reactor were exposed to air. The result was the release of approximately 370,000 terabecquerels of radiation. The situation was declared a Level 7 (major ongoing radioactive accident) by the International Atomic Energy Agency . The only other time this level has been reached was at Chernobyl in 1986.
The impacts of this event on global health will have far reaching consequences. The major aspect of this event that will be focused on is the radioactive cleanup. Following the events of March 11th 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi power plant will be decommissioned and dismantled, which is anticipated to take decades. The main challenges associated with the cleanup are the dangers associated with working with radioactive material, the enormous financial
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The removal of the spent fuel rods from each reactor is a perfect example. In order to ensure safe removal of each fuel rod, a special crane must be built over each reactor. This crane then moves the fuel rods into specially designed containers that submerge them in water, and then the entire container is moved elsewhere for secure storage. The whole process for fuel removal has never been attempted before and is considered to be extremely dangerous. While this is process is considered to be high risk, it is no less dangerous than another earthquake or natural disaster striking the power plant in its already precarious
Not many people fully know what happened at Chernobyl, or understand the effect it has had on today’s nuclear science. Chernobyl has been named as the largest man-made disaster ever recorded. Chernobyl is the most influential and important event during the 1980’s because it has completely changed how the world views anything nuclear by changing experimentation and usage of nuclear materials and power as a whole. It was extremely influential because it caused thousands of people to move out of their homes, while damaging nearby cities and countries and covering the surrounding area in radioactive smog, and is still a threat to surrounding cities and countries today. It also has caused the nearby area to be thriving with wildlife.
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,
Introduction: The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was the largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. It measured 7 on the Nuclear Event Scale, which is the highest rating. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was initiated by a magnitude 9 earthquake. This earthquake caused a tsunami with waves reaching up to 133 feet to crash on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. This caused major damage to the nuclear plant. Workers were needed to keep this already terrible incident from escalading. The Fukushima Daiichi cleanup workers are
Another concern Dealing with, is the decommissioning of a nuclear plant and the challenges that are likely to occur during the cleaning of the material waste such as air and water pollution which harms the community, the devastating story, Fukushima
Early in the morning of April 27, 1986, the world experienced its largest nuclear disaster ever (Gould 40). While violating safety protocol during a test, Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl power plant was placed in a severely unstable state, and in a matter of seconds the reactor output shot up to 120 times the rated output (Flavin 8). The resulting steam explosion tossed aside the reactor’s 1,000 ton concrete covering and released radioactive particles up to one and a half miles into the sky (Gould 38). The explosion and resulting fires caused 31 immediate deaths and over a thousand injuries, including radiation poisoning (Flavin 5). After the
There have been lots of nuclear accident around the world. One of the accident that had a major impact on the world was the Chernobyl disaster. The disaster took place on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. The disaster was caused by a reaction explosion induced by design faults and staff application errors. The accident took place in the course of scheduled tests to check the power supply mode in the event of external sources loss. Even after 10 days, explosions and ejections of radioactive substances continued. The release of radiation and radioactive substance polluted the places within 30 km of Chernobyl, and those areas have been closed for a long period of
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.
The reactor was overheating to the point it was emitting radioactive material. The Tokyo Energy Power Company admitted that they failed to inspect thirty-three cooling system equipment for the six reactors about two weeks before the disaster (NYTimes.com).
Many experts in the disaster preparedness community have time and again warned that nuclear power plants are prime targets just waiting to be attacked by a single rogue terrorist looking to cause mass casualties. This threat could materialize anywhere from being caused by a terrorist who drives a suicide bomb vehicle through the gates of a nuclear power plant to a radical idealist who has weaseled into working at a nuclear plant and one day decides to destroy the safety mechanisms in place to prevent nuclear meltdown. With threats like this that are almost impossible to stop, it is imperative that you take the needed precautions to prepare your family for such a
In April 1986, only 130 km north of the largest city in Ukraine, Chernobyl unit 4 reactor exploded spreading at least 5% of its radioactive core into the atmosphere and further downwind. 24 years later a magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit Japan causing a series of tsunamis that took out and ultimately caused the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi reactors 1-3. Both of these nuclear disasters released large amounts of radiation and causing evacuation of nearby towns and cities. Between these two nuclear disasters, Chernobyl has been found to be the worse because of its “flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel” compared to the quick reaction towards the Fukushima Daiichi accident that ultimately decreased the negative effects greatly.
Recently, the deserted Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has been emanating an alarming amount of radiation. Kyodo of Japan Times reported that the radiation reading has reached its highest level since its emergence in March 2011 (Kyodo, 2017). As a result, there is a greater presence of air and water pollution in Fukushima that could easily spread to surrounding areas. Therefore, it seems appropriate that in an interview with the Washington Post, radio-ecology expert Tom Hinton stated Fukushima is “an area that is among the most radioactively contaminated in the world” (as cited in Andrews, 2016). This resurgence has generated conspiracy theories, false maps and, interestingly, little news coverage. While many across different continents
In his first premise, he stated that there was no death cases resulted from the nuclear meltdown. However, after examining from other sources, one can realize that he has committed a “Half-truth” fallacy where the truth is told but several important key details are purposely omitted to support a false conclusion. The data collected from Fukushima Prefecture, 2014 indicates up to 1,232 nuclear-related deaths which can be explained as later deaths as a result of diseases caused by the radiation (MacPherson, 2015). Furthermore, to consider the dangers that the Fukushima disaster incident contributed, one should take into account of other factors. One of such is the health of workers whom are processing the aftermath surrounded by leftover radioactive water and it can be
On 11 March 2011 in Japan, the Fukushima nuclear power plant was seriously damaged by an earthquake and the radioactive substances were leaked to the surrounding. Local people had to evacuate away and up till now they are living under threat.
A recent study conducted by a team of international researchers found microparticles containing uranium and other radioactive materials that were released by the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors. The study strongly indicates a need for further investigation on Fukushima fuel debris. The collection of more data on the released fuel fragments and particles can help the Tokyo Electric Power Company, otherwise known as TEPCO, improve their clean-up and decommissioning plan for the Fukushima Daiichi site and the surrounding exclusion zone.
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)