The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster

This caused reactors 1 through 3 to go into a meltdown and it created a situation where Japan was on the brink of a major environmental disaster. To fully understand the different events there will be a focus on: factors that caused the meltdown, why this did not impact the other three reactors, the consequences, who is responsible and how these incidents can be prevented in the future. Together, these elements will highlight the underlying effects of this disaster and its impact on the region. ("Fukushima Accident")

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 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

Each year, enormous quantities of radioactive waste are created during the nuclear fuel process, including 2,000 metric tons of high-level radioactive waste and 12 million cubic feet of low-level radioactive waste in the U.S. alone. More than 58,000 metric tons of highly radioactive spent fuel already has accumulated at reactor sites around the U.S. for which there currently is no permanent repository. Even if Yucca Mountain is licensed, the Department of Energy has stated that it would not open before 2017. In 1979, the United States had its own disaster following an accident at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Reactor in Pennsylvania.In avoiding such accidents the industry has been very successful. In over 16,000 cumulative reactor years of

While the immediate threat of nuclear war has diminished since the end of the Cold War, nuclear threats remain an imminent concern to be prepared for. Recent events, such as the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster, show us that although the possibility of ICBMs raining down may be less there is still a need to be ready for nuclear radiation.

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

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

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

The Daiichi and Daini Fukushima nuclear plants were situated 11km from the coast and to the south . The dachii plant had been built about 10 metres above sea level with the seawater pumps 4 m above sea level . However , The Daini plant was built 13 metres above sea level. In 2002 the design basis was revised to 5.7 metres above, and the seawater pumps were sealed. In the event, tsunami heights coming ashore were about 15 metres, and the Daiichi turbine halls were under some 5 metres of seawater until levels subsided. Luckily , Daini was less affected. The maximum amplitude of this tsunami was 23 metres at point of origin, about 180 km from Fukushima . At 3:42 pm, the first tsunami wave hit, followed by a second 8 minutes later. The flooded

The Fukushima Daiichi incident (March 11, 2011) is not the first nuclear meltdown incident. It is also not the first time that nuclear companies promise to give proper maintenance to their reactors. However, even if they do, sometimes Mother Nature strikes us and Disasters like this annihilate entire countries for never-ending years. In this particular case plutonium contaminated the water, air, and the soil. While the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plants asserts that they did their best to be prepared for incidents like this, the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami proved them wrong. As a consequence, one can infer that there is not a 100% measure that can protects us, when incidents like this happen.

This caused reactors 1 through 3 to go into a meltdown and it created a situation where Japan was on the brink of a major environmental disaster. To fully understand the different events there will be a focus on: factors that caused the meltdown, why this did not impact the other three reactors, the consequences, who is responsible and how these incidents can be prevented in the future. Together, these elements will highlight the underlying effects of this disaster and its impact on the region. ("Fukushima Accident," 2012)

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)

Nuclear power is generated from the energy that is released from a heavy nucleus into a lighter, more stable nuclei. The heat produced is used to boil water which drives a steam turbine to generate electricity. This chain reaction process is also called fission. A key element to fuel nuclear plant is uranium. Uranium is considered to be a nonrenewable energy source, even though it is a common metal found in rocks worldwide. U-235 is most commonly used in plants because its atoms are easily split apart. To extract U-235 uranium ore is mined; for the United States, this element is found in the

On April 26th, 1986 at 1:23 (UTC +3) in the morning, the world’s worst nuclear accident occurred. Pripyat, Ukraine was the site of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and the incident that occurred there left those in the vicinity with a slew of medical conditions. In fact, the living children of those affected are still dealing with the mutations and other health problems associated with the radiation today. The entire city of Pripyat was abandoned, and is still considered uninhabitable due to the lingering radiation. Unfortunately, Pripyat wasn’t the only area affected. The rest of Europe and even as far as Canada were hit with the radiation, and people, animals and the environment alike, faced both short and long term, as well as immediate health effects.