FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI

NUCLEAR INCIDENT
福島第一原子力発電所
(Fukushima Daiichi Genshiryoku Hatsudensho).

by PARIKSHIT SINGH
GEOGRAPHY
Fukushima is both the southernmost prefecture of Tōhoku region and the
prefecture of Tōhoku region that is closest to Tokyo. With an area size of
13,784 km2 it is the third-largest prefecture of Japan, behind Hokkaido and Iwate
prefecture. It is divided by mountain ranges into three regions called (from west to
east) Aizu, Nakadōri, and Hamadōri.
The coastal Hamadōri region lies on the Pacific Ocean and is the flattest and most
temperate region, while the Nakadōri region is the agricultural heart of the
prefecture and contains the capital, Fukushima City. The mountainous Aizu region
has scenic lakes, lush forests, and snowy winters.
As of April 1, 2012, 13% of the total land area of the prefecture was designated
as National parks.
NUCLEAR REACTOR
Operators load uranium fuel into a reactor core. Neutrons strike it,
starting the chain reaction, which can continue as long as fissionable
fuel remains in the core.
The neutrons in the chain reaction travel at many different speeds, but
the slow ones work best in splitting uranium atoms. The core sits in
a moderator – a fluid such as water – that slows the neutrons down.
Reactor operators keep the reaction controlled and steady, so that the
reactor generates heat without getting too hot. They move control
rods in and out of the reactor core. The rods are made of materials that
absorb neutrons and slow or stop fission as needed.
The reactor could get very hot, so another fluid, a “coolant,” circulates through the
reactor core to cool it down.
Like water poured on hard-boiled eggs to cool them, the coolant gets hot – but this
is very useful heat. Despite its name, the coolant boils into high-pressured steam.
The pressure pushes the steam to turn turbines.
The energy of the spinning turbines becomes electricity.
LIGHT-WATER-REACTOR
The light-water reactor (LWR) is a type of thermal-neutron reactor that uses
normal water, as opposed to heavy water, as both its coolant and neutron
moderator – furthermore a solid form of fissile elements is used as fuel. Thermal-
neutron reactors are the most common type of nuclear reactor, and light-water
reactors are the most common type of thermal-neutron reactor.
HISTORY OF THE REACTOR
First commissioned in 1971, the plant consists of six boiling
water reactors. These light water reactors drove electrical
generators with a combined power of 4.7 GWe, making
Fukushima Daiichi one of the 15 largest nuclear power plants in
the world. Fukushima was the first nuclear plant to be
designed, constructed, and run in conjunction with General
Electric and Tokyo Electric Power company (TEPCO).
SITE LAYOUT
The plant is on a bluff which was originally 35 meters above sea level.
During construction, however, TEPCO lowered the height of the bluff by
25 meters. One reason for lowering the bluff was to allow the base of
the reactors to be constructed on solid bedrock in order to mitigate the
threat posed by earthquakes. Another reason was the lowered height
would keep the running costs of the seawater pumps low. TEPCO's
analysis of the tsunami risk when planning the site's construction
determined that the lower elevation was safe because the sea wall
would provide adequate protection.
DISASTER EVENTS
Tōhoku earthquake
The 9.0 Mw Tōhoku earthquake occurred on Friday, 11 March 2011, with
the epicenter near Honshu, the largest island of Japan.
This exceeded the earthquake reactor design tolerances of 0.45, 0.45,
and 0.46 . The shock values were within the design tolerances at units 1,
4, and 6.
Reactors 1, 2, and 3 immediately shut down automatically, this meant
the plant stopped generating electricity and could no longer use its own
power. One of the two connections to off-site power for units 1–3 also
failed , so 13 on-site emergency diesel generators began providing
power.
Tsunami and flooding
The earthquake triggered a 13-to-15-meter (43 to 49 ft)-high tsunami
that arrived approximately 50 minutes later. The waves overtopped the
plant's 5.7-meter (19 ft) wall, flooding the basements of the power
plant's turbine buildings and disabling the emergency diesel
generators. TEPCO then notified authorities of a "first-level
emergency".
The switching stations that provided power from the three backup
generators located higher on the hillside failed when the building that
housed them flooded.
Further batteries and mobile generators were dispatched to the site, but
were delayed by poor road conditions; the first arrived at almost six
hours after the tsunami struck.
Unsuccessful attempts were made to connect portable generating
equipment to power water pumps. The failure was attributed to flooding
at the connection point in the Turbine Hall basement and the absence of
suitable cables.
Evacuation

The government initially set in place a four-stage evacuation

process: a prohibited access area out to 3 km , an on-alert area
3–20 km and an evacuation prepared area 20–30 km. On day
one, an estimated 170,000 people were evacuated from the
prohibited access and on-alert areas. During the evacuation of
hospitals and nursing homes, 51 patients and elderly people
died.
Hydrogen explosions

In Reactors 1, 2, and 3, overheating caused a reaction between the water and

the zircaloy, creating hydrogen gas.
RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATION
Between 21 March 2011 and mid-July, around 8.4 kg of caesium-137
entered the ocean, with about 82 percent having flowed into the sea.
However, the Fukushima coast has some of the world's strongest
currents and these transported the contaminated waters far into
the pacific ocean, thus causing great dispersion of the radioactive
elements. Significant pollution of sea water along the coast near the
nuclear plant might persist, due to the continuing arrival of radioactive
material transported towards the sea by surface water running over
contaminated soil. Organisms that filter water and fish at the top of the
food chain are, over time, the most sensitive to caesium pollution.
FUKUSHIMA 50
• Fukushima 50 is the pseudonym given by the media to a group of employees at
the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Following the Tōhoku
earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011, a related series of nuclear
accident resulted in melting of the cores of three reactors. These 50 employees
remained on-site after 750 other workers were evacuated.
• Additional manpower was deployed from around Japan. When they arrived,
hundreds of firemen, SDF personnel and employees of TEPCO, convened 20 km
from the plant and debated how to best stabilize the plant. On the night of 15
March, these workers joined the original Fukushima 50. Despite the incorrect
figure of workers, the Fukushima 50 has remained the pseudonym used by media
to refer to the group of workers at Fukushima reflecting the solitary nature of the
role.
 THANK YOU

ありがとうございました.