Eighteen-thousand people lost their lives on March 11th, 2011 due to the triple disaster in Japan. An earthquake, tsunami, and three meltdowns caused the explosion of a nuclear power plant in Japan. The event was tragic, and out of the control of the workers at Fukushima Daiichi power. Despite certain exposure to radiation fifty brave and selfless workers stayed behind in efforts to control the devastating situation, and seven-hundred and fifty workers were evacuated. In addition to the 50 original workers –coined as Fukushima 50– at least an additional 500 brave souls joined in the efforts to contain and control the radiation. Sadly there was a domino effect of catastrophic events to come. These terrible events effected every sphere on the
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The hydrosphere is the water found within the earth’s lithosphere and the major bodies of water Earth provides from the surface. The largest body of water effected by the Fukushima disaster was the Pacific Ocean. There was a large volume of radionuclides that were released into the environment as fallout from the initial explosion. The fallout contaminated both freshwater and marine systems. After the initial fallout the Pacific Ocean suffered the effects of contaminated waters used to cool the rods were heavily spilled into the oceans waters. According to authors Nakata, Kaoru, Sugisaki, and Hiroya in their book “Impacts of the Fukushima Nuclear accident on fish and fishing grounds” The water has caused the smallest of the marine food chain to have become contaminated. When the larger fish eat zooplankton, for example, they are infected. It turn when a shark, whale, and even humans eats the larger fish, they are contaminated and exposed. All due to the water. Even rainwater is seeing the effects. Cited from the website, www.beachapedia.org and their article “Radiation From Fukushima” concentrations of radioactive iodine (I131, I132), cesium (Cs137, Cs134), and tellurium (Te132) have been detected in rainwater. The crazy catch is that this is happening in the United States! The studies were conducted by UC Berkeley School of Engineering, located along the west coast. Their work can be found here at http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/UCBAirSampling. If our rainwater is contaminated this means the radiation is in out
The hydrosphere is the water found within the earth’s lithosphere and the major bodies of water Earth provides from the surface. The largest body of water effected by the Fukushima disaster was the Pacific Ocean. There was a large volume of radionuclides that were released into the environment as fallout from the initial explosion. The fallout contaminated both freshwater and marine systems. After the initial fallout the Pacific Ocean suffered the effects of contaminated waters used to cool the rods were heavily spilled into the oceans waters. According to authors Nakata, Kaoru, Sugisaki, and Hiroya in their book “Impacts of the Fukushima Nuclear accident on fish and fishing grounds” The water has caused the smallest of the marine food chain to have become contaminated. When the larger fish eat zooplankton, for example, they are infected. It turn when a shark, whale, and even humans eats the larger fish, they are contaminated and exposed. All due to the water. Even rainwater is seeing the effects. Cited from the website, www.beachapedia.org and their article “Radiation From Fukushima” concentrations of radioactive iodine (I131, I132), cesium (Cs137, Cs134), and tellurium (Te132) have been detected in rainwater. The crazy catch is that this is happening in the United States! The studies were conducted by UC Berkeley School of Engineering, located along the west coast. Their work can be found here at http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/UCBAirSampling. If our rainwater is contaminated this means the radiation is in out