Fukushima Earthquake Effects

Improved Essays
“Every situation has a positive and negative, it’s down to which side you see.” This quote directly corresponds with the accident in Fukushima. On March 11th, 2011, an earthquake struck this area in Japan; this earthquake had a magnitude of 9, which triggered a disastrous tsunami that reached wave heights of over 120 feet. The power of this natural disaster was unbeknownst to Japanese citizens and government, although some of the effects that it caused could have been much less if proper precautionary measures were taken (WNA). When this calamity had occurred, it instilled fear inside of people on a global level. This is due to the fact that the negative effects that had occurred on March 11th, 2011 were tremendous. Fortunately, positive effects …show more content…
The nuclear power plant was heavily damaged by the earthquake, although most damage that occurred was due to the massive tsunami (WNA). The earthquake had struck offshore and in response to that, “all six external power supply sources were lost due to earthquake damage, so the emergency diesel generators located in the basements of the turbine buildings started up” (WNA). Then, approximately 41 minutes later, the tsunami hit. The first wave and second wave were separated by an eight minute interval. The second wave had submerged the seawater pumps. Along with this, the diesel generators had been damaged, as well as everything else in the basements of the turbine buildings. The tsunami had also taken out roads, as well as decimating buildings, which made outside access quite difficult. Ultimately, a station blackout had occurred, and the batteries that had charged the reactors were both flooded and damaged. Units one and two had been immediately flooded and unit three had power for about 30 hours (WNA). So in conclusion, the tsunami wreaked havoc upon the faulty countermeasures that were taken. The objects responsible for pumping seawater back into the ocean were completely flooded, and the generators had been damaged. This in turn, had caused most power to be lost almost immediately following the flooding of the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The Chernobyl disaster (1986) was probably the worst possible accident in a nuclear power plant. It was the biggest catastrophe ever happened since the beginning of operating nuclear power stations. It started by a total meltdown of the reactor core. The explosion and the consequent reactor fire, burning for 10 days, resulted in a vast emission of radioactive material, early deaths of 31 persons and adverse consequences for the public and the environment [198]. This Chernobyl disaster provided many invaluable lessons.…

    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    TMIncident The three Mile Island incident was a horrific accident that started on March 28, 1979 when unit 2 partially melted down. This occurrence that has been dealt with numerous times started a chain reaction of incidents. After the turbine had shut down and radioactive fluids started overflowing the release valves were opened and coolant waters were rushed in. This coolant water cooled the turbines but then was exposed to the radiation. Now there had already been a couple technical errors that occurred leading up to this so the workers there could not get a lucky bounce this day.…

    • 658 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The government took actions by completing a system for the damages, coming up with a financing program, making a legislative agenda, and as well as coming up with a reconstruction plan. It was estimated that the cost of damages and losses are 30 billions in U.S. dollars, which makes 18% of the GDP. The quakes and tsunamis destroyed 370,000 residences, 4,133 schools, 9 airports, 79 hospitals, 212 bridges, and 971 miles of roads. 56 people were missing and a total of 525 deaths.…

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The source of the earthquake was approximately 43 miles east of the Oshika Peninsula. The earthquake was so severe it is now known as the Great East Japan Earthquake, which also triggered tsunami, waves that reached as high as 133 feet and when they hit shore, they traveled 6 miles inland. The earthquake alone caused tsunami waves, flooding, landslides, fires, building damage and a nuclear…

    • 1307 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On 3/11 Crisis

    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Infrastructure suffered large-scale damage, closing many ports along the coast, the principal regional airport at Sendai, railway lines and roads, complicating relief and recovery efforts. At the outset 4.4 million households lost electricity and 1.5 million lost water services. In addition, the earthquake and tsunami jeopardized reactor-cooling systems causing meltdowns following hydrogen explosions at three of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, disseminating radioactive contamination and prompting the government to eventually evacuate 80,000 residents living within 20 km radius of the plant. The economic and public safety repercussions from radioactive contamination was gathering as the Japan brand had been tainted, food safety undermined, farming communities ruined. The overall cost of the disaster was estimated to be between $210–300 billion, dwarfing the $125 billion devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, making it the most expensive natural disaster on…

    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Magnitude is the severity of the earthquake. 8.0-9.0 and greater is called a GREAT earthquake. The quake occurred depth of 15 miles so a lot of the energy of the Tsunami was released at the…

    • 282 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    According to the information above, the reaction of the Soviet government was the worst. It is totally unacceptable to hide the information that might harm not only people in the Soviet Union, but also in some parts of Europe. The action were taken late enough to people to get damaged. Lots of people gained lots of disease connected with radiation, but government could prevent this if they reacted faster and the workers could determine the problem straight after the accident happened. Governments’ reactions both to the Fukushima and Three Mile Island accidents were both fast enough and there were no victims and no deaths.…

    • 238 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When a traumatic event occurs in society, the effect is vast on individuals that live in that society and can even affect those not directly involved. Catastrophes cause enormous changes in the way an individual thinks, behaves, and the environment the individual lives in. Every person deals with catastrophe in his or her own way; however, following the event of a natural disaster or terrorist attack, studies have shown that patterns occur. People can be affected directly or indirectly when disaster occurs; one does not have to be involved in a particular traumatic experience to be affected, for example, he or she may have family or friends that were involved, or just simply watching the event occur on television may cause stress.…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    That is an almost 100-fold increase in volume. To minimize human losses, the state mandated evacuations in certain areas. Over 12,000 people were told to evacuate, with some going to temporary evacuation shelters. Some remote communities in the mountains were evacuated by helicopter after roads washed…

    • 801 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are many controversy about whether the dropping of the bomb on Bikini Atoll was necessary. There are a lot more evidence that the bombs were not at all necessary. An example of that is that it hurt a lot of lives and sea animals. The other side says it would prepare for future wars. Who is right?…

    • 927 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    On 11 March 2011, all international news broadcasts were fixated on Japan, for an unfortunate reason; a natural catastrophe that has struck the Tohoku region of Japan without warning. The calamity was instantaneously announced through viral videos, emails, Twitter feeds, social media and live broadcasts on both international and local Japanese news programs, with the global network news reporters clambering through the rubble (Bestor, 2013). This unprecedented natural disaster that has shocked the world is known as the Tohoku Pacific Coast Earthquake and formally known as the ‘Higashi Nihon Daishinsai’ (the Great Eastern Japan Disasters). From a magnitude 9.0 undersea earthquake, to a 15-meter tsunami which ultimately resulted to a nuclear…

    • 1310 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Tsunami Many natural and manmade disasters happen every year. Some minor, others life changing. The life changing experiences have quite literally changed these people's lives. One of these many natural disasters had this effects on people… this was the 2011 tsunami in Japan. An earthquake in the area caused a hurricane to start.…

    • 640 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

     The staff of BP was directly affected by the BP and The Deepwater Horizon Disaster of 2010. Due to previous false alarms the alarm system had been turned off so the staff was able to sleep undisturbed. However, on the night of the disaster works were jumping into flame filed water and hoping that what training they had for disasters was enough to help them escape.  11 Crew members lost their life and 17 left the disaster with severe injuries.  The environmental damage from the oil spill also took the lives of many fish, birds, and reptiles.…

    • 1246 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The explosion does not leave any victims, but instead, it reminds Japanese people what they are not supposed to forget, Japan’s past and the fact that tragic history should not be repeated. Therefore, Japanese neo-nationalists need to shake off their obsession towards the past glory and focus on Japan’s future progress as both peace-making and advanced country in Asia. Ultimately, the true proud and honorable country cannot be achieved without admitting the past mistakes and using the mistakes as stepping stones to earn trust and respect from both other countries and its own…

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 was one of the worst nuclear accidents in history. Many of the harmful effects can still be seen today, almost 30 years after the incident. The main cause of the accident was a flaw in the reactor 's design, which resulted in an explosion releasing large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere. You may think that with an increase in safety measures and more careful attention to building and design that we can avoid further tragedies, but unfortunately not all disaster is caused by human neglect. The major tsunami that took place in Japan in 2011 led to equipment failures and in turn caused three meltdowns at the Fukushima Power Plant, resulting in the release of radioactive material.…

    • 1246 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays