On March 11, 2011 natural destruction raged the small island nation of Japan. With a massive earthquake and tsunami caused equipment damage that eventually lead to destruction of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. During the earthquake and tsunami three nuclear reactors were destroyed. The 9.0 magnitude earthquake caused damage all over the island and still 2 years later Japan is struggling to get back on its feet. People were forced to leave their homes and possessions behind as the Japanese government tried to correct the damage done by the tsunami and earthquake. With not only the country hurting, its natives hurt for normalcy. The road to recovery is a long one but one must look at the steps taken so far to return Japan back to …show more content…
They have not been told that their homes will never again be habitable. Pictures taken of these zones showed items wrapped in saran wrap signaling crews that these items must be destroyed. Only authorized personal are allowed in to said zones and suits and proper materials are too be worn. Those towns who were not after directly by the radiation still wait to be rebuilt as Japan tries its best to figure out what needs priority. Tokyo only narrowly escaped harmful radiation, and if the accident had spun further out of control, contamination in the metropolitan area would have been serious enough to warrant the urgent departure of its 30 million residents. Taking up residence in the exclusion zone, replacing the human inhabitants is the Cesium-137. With a half-life of 30 years, and since it takes about 10 half-lives for any radionuclide to disappear, it will maintain ownership of the exclusion zone for centuries. Once radioactive cesium enters an ecosystem, it quickly becomes ubiquitous, contaminating water, soil, plants and animals. It has been detected in a large range of Japanese foodstuffs, including spinach, tea leaves, milk, beef, and freshwater fish up to 200 miles from Fukushima. Routine ingestion of foods contaminated with so-called “low levels” of radioactive cesium has been shown to lead to its bio-accumulation in the heart and endocrine tissues, as well as in the kidneys, small intestines, pancreas, spleen and liver. This process occurs much
On March 14, 2011, Anne Applebaum created an account of the events that had occurred earlier that day in Japan. She recalled the shattering earthquake that followed a tsunami and destroyed towns such as Rikuzentakata, a town of 25,000 people (Applebaum 229). The earthquake also agitated Fukushima Daiichi, one of Japan’s nuclear power complexes. Unfortunately, all three reactors lost their ability to cool the steaming water and had to be flooded. The seawater effectively destroyed the plant before more explosions occurred. As a result, radioactive steam had to be released. Applebaum glorified the Japanese in their “technological brilliance” and their ability to cope in extreme circumstances (Applebaum 230). Although the regulations are strict
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
You stated that Japan was not prepared for what was to come in this situation, and I agree with your statement. Although, regulations, safety precautions, and communication are critical standards in the operation of the nuclear reactors, is it possible to prevent a nuclear disaster which resulted from nature? Considering that it is virtually impossible to prohibit nature from causing destruction, I am confident that the government of Japan new plans and strategies will be successful if another incident of nature was to occur? I credit that Japan has provided enough information about
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
Japan has put time and money into cleaning up the mess of the nuclear disaster but the long term effects are alarming. Due to the leaks, radiation
Some radioactive gas was released a couple of days after the accident, but not enough to cause any dose above background levels to the local residents.
This earthquake was one of the most destructive in history. It was known as the “Triple Disaster.” The disaster caused massive drops in industrial production. One of the main plants has been closed down indefinitely due to nuclear material leaking into the surroundings, destroying the landscape. This caused Japan to not take in as much money as before. Today, the nuclear reactions have started operating again. The citizens lost everything. Many countries were by Japan’s side, helping clean up the northern part of the country. Just like the Kobe earthquake of 1995, the NGO movement of Japan has had help from non-profit organizations and many
Japan is still recovering from the devastating earthquake and tsunami . It was about 150,000 evacuees that lost their homes in February 2017. About 50,000 of them are as of today still living in temporary housing . 120,000 houses and more were destroyed , 726,000
On Friday March 11th 2011 at 2:46 pm, Japan’s Eastern coast was hit with an earthquake of a 9.0 magnitude. Following the quake, an 18 foot tsunami was triggered causing the pre existing damage to be even more sever. The tsunami caused the AC power to disable in 3 of the plants, which kept the cooling system from working. As a result, hydrogen in the exploded in the fuel rods which stated the release of the large amounts of radioactive material into the surrounding area.The quake and tsunami alone caused 15,893 people to lose their lives. Not only did this devastate the country when it happened, but the disaster is still affecting not only Japan, but surrounding areas, such as the Pacific ocean and parts of the U.S.
On March 11, 2011, Japan was hit by an earthquake and a tsunami resulting in 15,894 confirmed deaths, with 2,556 people missing. This was the fourth strongest earthquake to hit in recent years with a magnitude of 9.1 (“Damage Station Police” ). However, this was not the only disaster to have struck Japan, the combination of the earthquake and tsunami led to the meltdown of a power plant in, Tōhoku region, Japan. This event became known as the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Nuclear meltdowns has contributed harm to many environments by radioactive leaks, soil contamination, and radiation exposure.
When the radioactive cesium spread in the ecosystem it turns into ubiquitous contaminating water, plants, soil and animals. Food contaminated by radioactive cesium lead to its bio-accumulation in heart, endocrine tissues, kidneys, small intestines, pancreas, spleen and liver.
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)
On 11th March 2011, the catastrophe hit the east part of Japan, and many people were killed by the earthquake and the following Tsunami. The earthquake and the Tsunami disabled to supply electricity for Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants. Although cooling system is necessary for the safety on nuclear power plants, it had also stopped, then three units of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants went on meltdown. According to World Nuclear
The flooding and earthquake damage in the surrounding areas hindered external assistance, leading to a nuclear meltdown.” (Tomodachi Analysis)