With Japan getting a large amount of their power from nuclear sources, you can imagine the panic they were in on March 11, 2011. What triggered these events was an earthquake, and if that wasn’t enough, a tsunami then followed. The tsunami that was triggered by the earthquake disabled all AC power to Units 1, 2, and 3 of the Power Plant, and carried off fuel tanks for emergency diesel generators. As a result, large amounts of radioactive material was released into the environment.
On March 15th, teams formed from members of the Radiation Safety Council at Hirosaki University set out to take action on the situation. According to an online article from January, 2012 by J Clin Biochem Nutr. the teams that were sent out how two missions. The first was to perform screening tests for radioactive contamination among the general public in Fukushima Prefecture. The second was to assist with temporary visits by evacuees to the homes in a 20-km zone. Radiation measurements and sampling were also conducted.
Here is a picture of inside the Fukushima Daiichi reactors to better understand where the problems were.
So what is Japan doing now for new energy strategies?
According to the nytimes.com, Japan plans on phasing out their nuclear dependence by 2040. A huge change for a country that has depended on this source for so long.The goverment had a few ideas of how to go about this change. The new energy policy was named the “Revolutionary Energy and Environment Strategy”. This new plan has the goal of extending the expected transition away from nuclear power by at least a decade and includes caveats that appear to allow some plants to operate for decades past even the new deadline. Some people we angry at the length of this new policy and wanted to see something done faster. But in order to do this right and make the best decisions, then they must move slow and make sure every action is accounted for.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3246178/
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/fukushima_accident_inf129.html
I cant believe this happened in Japan! The danger of nuclear power was clearly illustrated in your blog and you had a great picture to back it up! great job!