The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster was caused by an earthquake and tsunami that hit the nuclear plants on March 11, 2011.  This disaster was the worst thing that has happened in the history of Japan.  The magnitude 9.0 earthquake was followed by a series of tsunamis that wiped out a lot of Japan.  The disaster caused all power sources to shut down and the supply of cooling water was stopped.  This left many people without power and water for days and weeks.  The government even raised its International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) from a 4 to its highest rank 7 because of its impact on the world not just Japan.

Water was a huge problem in the disaster.  At the end of March, government officials tested the water in the power plants which happened to have high levels of radiation.  According to the National Safety Society, contaminated water leaked into the sea at least twice.  The only effort to prevent further leaks was to move any contaminated water into any water tank that was not full.  Looking at the bigger picture however, the contaminated water is still in the ocean which is very harmful to society.  Not just for the wildlife in the sea, but also to us humans that eat seafood, and/or go to the beach a lot.  In my opinion, I believe that the Japanese government could do a better job if they were prepared for something like this.

In April, he Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) had a plan to “cool down the reactor cores by filling their containment vessels with water.”  In the month of May, a hole was found in a pipe that caused a lot of their water to get more contaminated from the radiation.  Since this plan failed, they tried again but this time they filtered the water through a large machine.  Unfortunately, this plan failed as well and they are still working on it till this day.

I’m no scientist, but wouldn’t you think a large nuclear power plant would have been prepared for this kind of disaster.  I mean being a huge isolated island on the ocean isn’t a big enough reason?  Whoever the masterminds who structured the power plant should have realized that they need a backup plan, generator, and other backup water tanks and pipes or recourses incase something like Fukushima happened.  Even though it was by far the largest disaster in Japanese history and nobody could have predicted it, it is still something you need to take initiative for just as a safety measure.

 

References:

http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsunamiupdate01.html

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110910p2a00m0na008000c.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/08/fukushima-nuclear-disaster-pm-japan