The Disaster Of Eastern Japan

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 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")

The intensity of the earthquake was a major factor because its magnitude played a huge role in the damage that the disaster caused. It was reported to have hit a magnitude of 9-0 with the epicenter being located at least 80 miles away. The focus was 18.6 miles lower than the western Pacific. The result was a rapture of the subduction zone and thus led to the Japan Trench being affected. Several foreshocks reached as much as 6.0 and greater effects that ended up acting on the land in the following days and months even after the quake had subsided. The tsunami that accompanied the earthquake originated from a fault along the convergent plate boundary at the section where the Pacific plate joins with the west beneath Japan. The subduction zone was very active seismically at the time of the occurrence of the earthquake. Thus based on my understanding of earthquakes, the March 11 disaster was among the strongest earthquakes ever recorded because of the effects that followed because a portion of the ocean trench immediately went off-shore. In fact, it was later reported that a satellite that was orbiting around the Earth, infrasonics could be detected on the outer edge of the Earth’s atmosphere. The low-frequency waves meant that there were adverse effects that could be felt weeks after the real disaster had hit, hence the reporting that it was the

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.

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,

The first many waves of tsunami hit Japan's coastline which was 60 kilometer in offshore East Tohoku coast. The massive tsunami suddenly appeared and submerged everything along the Pacific coast of archipelago northern Japan. "The tsunami waves reached run-up heights (how far the wave surges inland above sea level) of up to 128 feet (39 meters) at Miyako city and traveled inland as far as 6 miles (10 km) in Sendai. The tsunami flooded an estimated area of approximately 217 square miles (561 square kilometers) in Japan" ( ). Also, near Oarai, the tsunami generated a huge whirlpool offshore. The Tohoku to destroyed and immersed a lot of houses as well as high buildings. In addition, the Tohoku tsunami not only happened in Japan bit also spread across the Pacific at least 20 countries, including the western coast of North and South America. However, though it can affect many parts of the region, but it caused only relatively small impacts; Japan was the only countries that had to be influenced heavily. Although Japan had warning actions and rapid evacuation, they cannot avoid and reduce

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

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

According to the researchers 70% of all backup generators were washed away by the tsunami, so being unable to cool itself, Fukushima’s reactors melted down. According to Synolakis, when the power plant was built, they set generators in the basement only 12 meters above

The height of waves triggered by the quake varied in different coastal regions, from 1.4 meters at Sedai port in Miyagi Prefecture to 60 cm at Onahama Port in Fukushima Prefecture. A one meter high tsunami wave hit the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant which was struck by the massive tsunami in March 2011 sending its three reactors into meltdown at the time.

Also, the Pacific Marine life has been Severely Affected. Regarding Japan nuclear reactors after the accident, in 2011 31 of Japan’s 50 nuclear power plant reactors were shut down and only 19 were operating which make the power supply in japan become severely constrained. Fukushima accident has harmed Japan in not only in the nuclear field but also in many other fields such as agriculture, forestry, and fisheries; manufacturing; education; industry; tourism; politics. Finally, Tepco has struggled to handle the complex task of cleaning up the accident mess. To prevent further contamination, TEPCO had constructed a frozen soil barrier, but in 2016 they revealed that "the ice wall had failed to stop groundwater from flowing in and mixing with highly radioactive water inside the wrecked reactor buildings, adding that they are technically incapable of blocking off groundwater with the frozen wall”. (Biggs & Humber, 2011; Collins). Critics have blamed the government for leaving the plant in the hands of the same operator who failed to avoid the accident in the first

The location of the earthquake was near the Miyagi Prefecture where the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant located. What is worse, the tsunami was triggered by the serious earthquake leading to not only the flooding of the emergency generator room and the damage of the diesel generator, but also the block on aid. Thus, without cooling system, the reactors became overheated and finally meltdown in the next few days. On the other hand, these accidents were recognized would happen and a relative report had be handed in to the manager by the engineer of TPECO for several years ago. However, the company did not take the report seriously because managers would not believe the risk is realistic. Because of the mistake of managers, the catastrophe may eventually cause anywhere from 15 to 1,300 deaths and from 24 to 2,500 cases of cancer, mostly in Japan, and it also had chance to damage environment all around the world (Science Daily, 2012).

I. (Gain Attention and Interest): March 11, 2011. 2:45 pm. Operations at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant continued as usual. At 2:46 pm a massive 9.0 earthquake strikes the island of Japan. All nuclear reactors on the island shut

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)

The triple disaster: earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima nuclear accident. The earthquake and tsunami caused extensive and severe structural damage in north-eastern Japan, including heavy damage to roads and railways as well as fires in many areas, and a dam collapse. Naoto Kan said, "In the 65 years after the end of World War II, this is the toughest and the most difficult crisis for Japan." Around 4.4 million households in northeastern Japan were left without electricity and 1.5 million without water. The tsunami caused nuclear accidents, primarily the level 7 meltdowns at three reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant complex, and the