Fukushima’s Disaster and Aftermath

Three years ago,Japan was devastated by a 9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami. The disaster was compounded by a nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, a 12 miles exclusion zone still surrounds building housing a nuclear reactor, which exploded and 3 other reactors thatmelted down. The sheer numbers of those affected by the disaster is hard to wrap around yourhead. And estimated 19000 people perished and left another 325 thousand without permanent housing.

As a result of the Fukushima nuclear accident, the Japanese mainland was massively contaminated with radioactive material. In November 2011, the Japanese Science Ministry an

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nounced that as much as 11,580 square miles (30,000 square kilometers) of the land surface of Japan was contaminated with the radioactive isotope caesium-137. Caesium-137, with a half-life of 30 years, is produced as one of the more common radioactive fission products by the nuclear fission of uranium-235 in nuclear reactors. About 4,500 square miles of land was found to have radiation levels that exceeded Japan’s allowable radiation exposure rate for the general public (the official ‘safe’ level of exposure to radiation). On 19 April 2011, in a highly controversial move, the Japanese authorities announced that this level of radiation exposure would be increased twenty times – a level twenty time higher than the American population exposure limit. The Japanese government was then able to downplay the dangers of the radioactive contamination at Fukushima and avoid the evacuation of many of the most badly contaminated areas.

Shortages of food, water, shelter, medicine and fuel for survivors became a png;base641d2c760cff1903de high priority for the Japanese government. In response the government mobilized the Self-Defence Forces, whilst many countries sent search and rescue teams to help search for survivors. Aid organizations both in Japan and worldwide also responded, with the Japanese Red Cross reporting $1 billion in donations.