The Fukushima Accident

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")

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

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.

After the major earthquake and tsunami that took place in Japan, Japanese officials tried to sort out whether jolted nuclear reactors could slip into full meltdown.

The significant threats prompts the reactors breaking down were blunders in machine values, worker's inadequate preparing, and in planning field. The

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).

There was the extremely severe nuclear disaster which was triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake on 11 March 2011, a level 7 disaster was declared by the International Nuclear Event Scale because of its extensive and devastating effects. As analysing the effect of Fukushima disaster, the radioactive fallout has effects on the human health, the environment, the agriculture and fisheries, even has the implications for the future of nuclear power worldwide (Burnie, 2012). According to the facts, Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Disaster cannot be regarded as a natural disaster, it was a profoundly manmade disaster that could and should have been foreseen and prevented (BBC, 2012).

Regarding the nuclear event at Fukushima, there is evidence of manmade errors, which resulted in the first three-core meltdown ever. As earthquakes hit Japan, the nuclear power plant lost power and pipes that served to provide the reactors with coolant and aid recirculation were damaged and cracked. Before the tsunami, which measured a 9 on the Richter scale, hit the Fukushima nuclear plant “a radiation alarm went off” (McNeill & Adelstein, 2011). Without coolant or proper circulation, it was a matter of time until the reactors proceeded to

History of Nuclear Power plants has shown human society that it is unreliable and unpredictable. Behrens and Rosen show the devastation that Chernobyl had on the human population after the large scale meltdown. “Fukushima was the worst nuclear disaster since 1986, when the Chernobyl nuclear power reactor in the Ukraine suffered a meltdown, eventually exposing over half a million cleanup workers to toxic levels of radioactivity and releasing lesser levels of contamination over much of the western USSR and Europe” (Behrens, Rosen 292). Chernobyl is a prime example of nuclear power plant reactions when they have meltdowns and fail. Chernobyl was a severe case but it gives the public a good idea of what happens when these power plants are not properly

How each of the accidents was similar to each other was that in each of the accidents the core of the power plant had a meltdown causing a number of problems to occur to the area around it. In the accident of Chernobyl and Fukushima, they both had to have a cover built over the cores so that the radiation that was in the core not leak out. Also, the backup power in both cases did not help keep the power plant to in the emergencies that it had. A short-term effect that was caused by both of the accident was that they were able to manage the power plant cores and stop more radiation from coming out of the cores. The long-term effect is that the radiation that was released after the meltdown will take a long time to be recovered, but the people

The plant at Fukushima was dangerous for several reasons. First, because of it's primitive design, second, because of Japan's inherent bad record for nuclear accidents, and third, for the bureaucrats at Tepco; who should have upgraded or made obsolete the Fukushima plant a decade ago, yet they refused. The biggest reason that nuclear power is dangerous in Japan as an entirety not just Fukushima, is because of earthquakes. Earthquake can and has in the past literally opened up multi-meter wide fissures in the earth. Imagine that happening under a nuclear reactor, There is no perfectly safety precaution that is able to guarantee that a nuclear power plant will be safe during an large earthquake and Japan gets large earthquakes roughly every

Ever since disaster struck Japan on March 11, 2011 Fukushima, Japan is now considered the “world’s radiation nightmare”. The tsunami that hit Fukushima led to the meltdowns of the reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Complex. Food contamination quickly became a major concern throughout all of Japan and nearby countries. Fish and other major foods for the Japanese contained an undetectable amount of radiation making the food unsafe for the people who depend on it to eat. Along with the food not being safe the value of the food dropped significantly making it hard for the famers of Fukushima to sell their product to the consumers. This disaster was the world’s worst nuclear accident in the past 25 years. The major problem is that after the tsunami happened tons of radioactive water and waste is being leaked into the ocean.

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 consequences of a nuclear accident are potentially very damaging to human life, health and the environment.