Fukushima In The Pacific Ocean Essay

The Fukushima Daiichi power station was affected on March 11, 2011, by an earthquake and tsunami. The next day, leakage of radioactive materials were found. The steam was filled in the building by the core meltdown caused by dysfunction of the cooling system. Radioactive materials released into the environment, the government issued evacuations for residents within 20km

On average 700 people worldwide drink contaminated water worldwide. The leading cause to water pollution is sewage and waste. On average the world dumps 5-10 million tons of untreated industrial waste into streams, rivers and oceans. In 2011 a tsunami that hit Japan sent a forty-three and half miles long island made of debris floating out into the pacific ocean. Also from causes of the tasumi it promoted the Japanese government to dump two million of radioactive water into the pacific ocean as well. In 1989 Exxon accidently spilled eleven million metric tons of crude oil into the sea off of Alaska’s Prince Williams Sound. The disaster cover 3,000 square miles.

The Tohoku tsunami resulted in the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident with three reactors melting down: the largest nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster (Kyutoku et al., 2012). Officials from the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency reported that radiation levels inside and outside the plant were up to 1,000 times and 8 times normal levels respectively (Tabuchi and Walk, 2011). The reactors of the nuclear plant sustained major damage to the cooling system meaning that radioactive isotopes were released into the air, ultimately leading to contamination of soil, water and food. Radioactive chemicals were found in tap water in many cities, as well as in the soil and food products (Hur, 2011). Damage and destruction of water treatment and sewage systems increase the likelihood of outbreaks of cholera and typhoid, although outbreaks are less likely to

The Fukushima disaster was caused by an earthquake and its following tsunami which caused a failure in the backup systems (World Nuclear Association, 2016). The tsunami knocked out the generators that powered the cooldown processes for three of the Fukushima power plants which caused the radiation leaks and other complications. Consequentially, the disaster was initially classified as a level 5 on the INES scale. Further investigation after the disaster was under control changed it to a level 7 disaster, the highest level on the INES scale. The estimated radioactive releases were about one tenth of Chernobyl, the worst nuclear disaster in history.

The nuclear disaster in Fukushima occurred at fourteen forty six, Japanese time. The disaster occurred because a major magnitude nine earthquake struck North Eastern Japan and a fifteen meter high tsunami also struck the power plant (Grimston). There were eleven overall reactors that were effected by the earthquake and tsunami. Nine of the reactors cooling systems continued to work after the natural disasters occurred, but reactors one, two and three of the Fukushima Daiichi plant were terribly damaged and could not cool down the fission process. This is what lead to the one, two and three reactors to melt, causing the most detrimental damage to the global community (Grimston). Critics of the disasters say that Daiichi was not up to global nuclear safety standards because the wall the protected the plant was only stable against six meter tall tsunami waves, not the massive

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

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

The oceanic pollution that resulted from the discharge of radioactive materials following the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station was a concern not only for the coastal population of Fukushima, but also for countries facing the Pacific Ocean. This called for rapid clarification of the actual dispersal situation by oceanic monitoring, but there were limits to collect water samples by ships, and it was difficult to gain an adequate understanding.

The most egregious facet of the ongoing fiasco that is the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear incident is widely accepted to be the intentional release of hundreds of tons of radioactive water into the oceans surrounding the reactors. In terms of total radioactivity released into the environment, Fukushima has already surpassed the Chernobyl incident of the 1980s, that Soviet-sized lead balloon (plutonium balloon?), which is the only other Level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale. But another seemingly forgotten relic of the Cold War could pose an even greater nuclear threat to our oceans, although it has yet to receive the same level of scientific and political scrutiny as these two accidental events.

Cs-137 results from the natural decay chain of Uranium-235. Cs-137 has a half-life of 30 years which would account for the high levels after the decrease in discharge from Sellafield and is problematic due to ease with which it spreads throughout nature due to the high solubility of Caesium salts. This ease of spreading makes it difficult to clean up radionuclides such as Cs-137 and poses dangers to both aquatic wildlife and humans as ingesting the isotope can lead to exposure to gamma and beta radiation. Small amounts of Cs-137 were also released in the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 which would also correspond to the above background levels after the discharge from Sellafield decreased and would fit the timescale identified by the Sellafield

Because of the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, the Pacific Ocean experienced more discharge of radioactive waste than any other ocean in the world. The immediate effects were devastating for fishers. Around 56% of all of fisher’s catches had noticeable traces of cesium. Because of such drastic conditions, drastic measures were taken to ensure safety of Japanese citizens. Fishing was banned off some coasts of the countries for months before it became regulatory again.

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.

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

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

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)