![]() ![]() “You calculate the probability of an event against the expense-and often cost is the driver.”Īfter the disaster, an investigative panel found that instead of supervising the company, government agencies had colluded with it. “In some cases, as we become more sophisticated, we’ve lost the ability to see what’s most obvious,” says Rod Ewing, Frank Stanton Professor in Nuclear Security at Stanford University. In fact, the company destroyed a natural sea wall to save money by building the plant closer to sea level. But the probability was small, so the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency didn’t insist that the utility company make plans for the loss of both main and backup power.Īn earthquake of that magnitude was what the nuclear industry calls a low-probability, high-consequence event. Years before disaster struck Fukushima, a prominent seismologist warned that large earthquakes and tsunamis might hit the coast. But even as scientists continue to investigate, Fukushima has changed global energy policy and raised big questions about the future of nuclear energy. Ten years later, we’re still learning exactly what went wrong-with big implications for both human health impacts and remediation efforts. Over 164,000 people were evacuated from 230 square miles, of whom some 43,000 are still refugees. So far, there has been one death from radiation certified by the Japanese Health, Labor, and Welfare Ministry, but that fails to account for the accident’s total impact. Ultimately, three reactors were severely damaged. A hydrogen explosion tore through reactor Number 3 and spent fuel storage burned, releasing further radiation. They also injected seawater, corroding the reactors’ pumps and pipes. TEPCO declared an emergency, and, fearing what was coming, the government evacuated thousands of people in an expanding radius around the power plant.ĭesperate, TEPCO tried to vent the steam, releasing radiation. The steam built up terrible pressure, generating hydrogen gas. But within an hour, the flooded generators failed.Īs the pumps stopped, the water in the cores began to drop, and the reactors started to boil. The Fukushima Daiichi plant, run by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), had planned to use emergency diesel generators to continually pump cooling water to these reactors. But nuclear fuel requires cooling even when a plant is stopped. Control rods dropped into the cores, stopping the nuclear fission of uranium. “Then I wondered about the safety of the nuclear plants.”Įleven nuclear reactors at four power plants automatically shut down when they detected the earthquake’s vibrations. “I saw the images of the Sendai airport being swept away by the tsunami,” Hiroaki later told historian Katsuya Hirano. Residents had only minutes of warning, and even evacuation locations were inundated. The waves reached heights of 128 feet, topping protective seawalls, and traveling inland for six miles to the town of Sendai. That’s when the next disaster hit: In less than an hour, the first of many tsunamis overcame the country’s northern shores. When the ground stilled, people looked to the ocean. The 9.0 magnitude earthquake was powerful enough to shorten the Earth’s day, throwing an extra wobble into its rotation. The seabed rose up 16 stories, and slipped sideways 165 feet. A slippery clay layer helped the great pieces of crust slide, releasing centuries of stress. ![]() Fifteen miles beneath the surface of the sea, one tectonic plate rumbled beneath another. It was a gray, wet afternoon, and the 61-year-old nuclear engineer was hard at work when the earthquake hit. On March 11, 2011, Koide Hiroaki was in his laboratory in Kyoto, Japan. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |