The Meltdown Of The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster

Newton’s third law of motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction; this law is not only applied in our studies but in our daily lives. For engineers, this is a law to live by; reminding each engineer that each of his/her actions will have an equal consequence whether it is good or bad. Engineers are trusted and respected individuals who represent not only themselves but the profession as a whole; their title gives them a great responsibility and a reputation to carry. On rare occasions do engineers make mistakes that sometimes lead to disasters that impact the lives of many. For every disaster that occurs as a result of an engineering mistake; thousands of lessons are learned. One disaster that impacted the lives of many and was labelled as the worst engineering disaster in history is the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The chain of events that lead to this disaster where taken as lessons and used to write many of today’s engineering codes of ethics, and improve safety regulations in various industries.

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")

Natural disasters are a huge challenge for the planet because of the adverse effects that are associated with them. One of the major earthquakes to have shaken the earth is the Great Sendai Earthquake or Great Tōhoku Earthquake that occurred in 2011. The event started when a powerful earthquake hit the northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, and resulted in a widespread damage on land. A series of massive tsunamis later devastated many parts of the coastal regions of the country with the worst affected being the Tohoku region. The tsunami further resulted in a major nuclear accident that damaged distant regions on a power station located along the coast. The economic effects of the tsunami qualify it as one of the major natural disasters because it affected Japan’s economic stability as the country ended up resorting to importing as an alternative to cover the loss.

(Events of Fukushima Nuclear disaster) The Fukushima Nuclear disaster had many effects on the environment and health, some of its effects on the health are, infection of skin and that is mainly caused because of radiation and chemicals in the water after the incident and little supply of clean water, it also impacted the citizens physiologically (mainly the mothers, kids and workers) who might have diseases as anxiety and depression, problems in pregnancy, related to deficiency of iodine in the body, and some hormones not functioning properly, all these causes might lead to still birth, and miscarriage and finally, radiation syndrome which is caused because of the release of massive amounts of radiation, spread of cancer (as thyroid cancer) because of radiation, and ascend of genetic inheritable diseases As in Diagram 2 (Health Concerns in Fukushima), we can signify that the percentages of cancer increased highly because of the disaster in comparison to nowadays and especially between people of ages (1month-20years)

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

Demetriou, Danielle. "Japan Earthquake, Tsunami and Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: 2011 Review." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 19 Dec. 2011. Web. 03 May

On March 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake occurred off the east coast of Japan, generating massive tsunamis, which severely damaged coastal areas. The earthquake and tsunami also hit the nuclear power plants (NPP) located in the coastal area in Tohoku and led to the loss of the entire core cooling capacity of three reactors of Fukushima Daiichi NPP and severe damage to the nuclear cores.1 Although deaths related to the release of radiation have not been reported six years after the disaster, the Japanese government and medical professionals have noticed an increase in mental health problems in emergency workers and evacuees. Numerous evacuations, physical detachment from homes and personal belongings, and stigmas between evacuees have been

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.

However, compared to other similar natural catastrophes, what made the 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami uniquely disastrous was the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.8 The effects of this accident are still seen today— removal of massive volumes of radioactive water is

Hukushima Nuclear Meltdown is one of the most horrible disasters in modern days. Technology that was meant to benefit human turned against people, changing the nature into the dead land. What I knew about this incident was that the reactor exploded in the nuclear power plant, resulting a critical amount of radioactive particles into the ocean. However, I did not know that there was a film taken in the power plant at the very moment of the disaster. Yesterday, my roommate told me that going into the reactor area in order to shut down the reactor manually was ranked as the most expensive part time job. Payment was 8000 dollars in an hour, but it was risking the life of those who went in. Ironically, there were limited people to get in because

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

On 11 March 2011 in Japan, the Fukushima nuclear power plant was seriously damaged by an earthquake and the radioactive substances were leaked to the surrounding. Local people had to evacuate away and up till now they are living under threat.

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)