On March 11, 2011, the world watched as the worst nuclear meltdown in over twenty years occurred in the Fukushima Prefecture of Japan. Just days before the reactor was scheduled to be shut down, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, causing the three reactors at the Power Plant to shut down. The tsunami caused the backup generators to malfunction, and left the entire Nuclear plant at a standstill. Without the generators, the lack of cooling led to explosions at the Fukushima plant and left many of the workers with radiation poisoning, injuries and even some fatalities.
An article in the New York Times on March 12, 2011 stated, “… at the start of the crisis Friday, immediately after the shattering earthquake, Fukushima plant officials focused their attention on a damaged storage pool for spent nuclear fuel at the No. 2 reactor at Daiichi. The damage prompted the plant’s management to divert much of the attention and pumping capacity to that pool. The shutdown of the other reactors then proceeded badly, and problems began to cascade.”
Problems only continued in the days following, by Sunday the coolant injection system for three of the six reactors had quit and water levels were falling. On Monday March 14, a reactor exploded injuring six workers. Over the next few weeks, large teams of firefighters dumped water on the plant and attempted to secure the radiation levels, which reached as far as 20 miles from the plant. Despite their attempts, smoke was still scene until the 25th of March, 14 days after the earthquake hit offshore. By mid April, Japan was still working to keep the reactors cool. Finally, in May after sending a robot in, they allowed four workers in protective suits to enter unit two and attempt to check radiation levels. Today, they are still working to test the water and ensure there are no continuing issues with radiation.
According to an article in the Huffington Post on January 31st, ” The health impact of last year’s Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan appears relatively small thanks partly to prompt evacuations, the chairman of a U.N. scientific body investigating the effects of radiation said on Tuesday. The fact that some radioactive releases spread over the ocean instead of populated areas also contributed to limiting the consequences, said Wolfgang Weiss of the U.N. Scientific Committee on the effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR).”
One can only hope they continue to keep it secure and look to better prepare themselves for future disasters.
Sources:
newyorktimes.com
wikipedia.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/31/fukushima-nuclear-disaster-health-impact_n_1244008.html
How do you think the people of Japan can better prepare for natural disasters? Your post was really informative of how the earthquake occured and affected the people. I like how you used the Huffington Post as a source.
Its just crazy to think of what would have happened if the radiation had spread across the Pacific, or even further across Japan. The destruction was just terrible and those pictures you added prove it. I haven’t heard much about Japan lately, so I don’t know if they are still having troubles or not, but they seem to be doing well picking themselves up.
Devastating pictures. Thanks for sharing them.