Mary Fairbanks

Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant

On March 11, 2011 there was a major earthquake in Japan. Following the
earthquake was a tsunami. According to http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Safety-andSecurity/Safety-of-Plants/Fukushima-Accident/, ...A 15-metre tsunami disabled the
power supply and cooling of three Fukushima Daiichi reactors, causing a nuclear
accident A part of the sea floor exteneded 650 km north-south and moved 10-20
meters horizontally. Japan moved a few metres east and the local coastline subsided
half a metre. When the earthquake hit 11 of the reactors of 4 power plants that were
currently operating at the time all shut down automatically. The other three, at
Fukushima Daiichi, lost power at 3.42 pm, almost an hour after the quake, when the
entire site was flooded by the 15-metre tsunami. There is 300 tons of radioactive water
from Fukushima entering the Pacific Ocean every 24 hours.
The events that caused Fukushima was an earthquake and tsunami. The
earthquake happened first and caused a tsunami.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2011/03/15/explainer-what-caused-theincident-at-fukushima-daiichi/ explains, The tsunami destroyed the diesel generators
that provide power to drive the pumps that circulate the water coolant through the
reactor that removes decay heat. The hydrogen and oxygen were split. Normally, the
circulation in the power plant would have combined the hydrogen and oxygen and
formed water. However, the reactors were shut down. Eventually the hydrogen would

reach a point to where it would explode. The hydrogen exploded and blew off the top
panels of the powerplant. The top of the reactor building was left exposed.
Fukushima lead to a lot of health problems.
http://thebreakthrough.org/index.php/issues/nuclear/five-surprising-public-health-factsabout-fukushima stated, Radioactive iodine from a nuclear accident can pose a serious
risk of thyroid cancer in kids; thousands of cases emerged after the Chernobyl disaster.
According to, http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/health-effectsfukushima-disaster/, Skin contamination remains one of the greatest risks following a
radiological disaster like Fukushima.
There were a few things that could have prevented Fukushima. Because you cant
prevent tsunamis, one thing Japan could have done was make more emergency
electricity resource options. The tsunami cut off their only electricity source option. If
they had more resources to electricity they wouldnt have had a problem with the reactor
overheating.
I chose this disaster for many reasons. One reason is, Fukushima was rated 7 on the
INES scale. Im also from Japan, so I wanted to know about the disaster that was in
Japan.