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1-Page Summary of Fukushima

Nurturing Fallacies

The Fukushima nuclear disaster began with an earthquake that struck the north of Tokyo on March 11, 2011. This was a combination of nature and human error. The threat was to pollute Tokyo, the world’s largest urban center, with radiation. Another threat came as Fukushima’s nuclear rods neared their melting points, coming close to a catastrophe. The disaster exposed regulatory and safety lapses in both Japan and the United States since US rules have international impact.

A disaster occurred in Japan when a 9.0 earthquake struck off the coast of Honshu, and shifted the Earth’s axis by a few inches. The quake was initially estimated to be 7.9 magnitude but scientists eventually rated it at 9.0, which is one of the world’s most powerful quakes since 1900

Japan has a lot of earthquakes, so it’s developed one of the best warning systems in the world. The system is designed to alert citizens about waves that travel through the Earth and cause damage based on how fast they move; slower waves do more damage than faster ones. There are four state agencies and many local entities that monitor and regulate Japan’s 54 commercial nuclear plants. In theory, these agencies work together but didn’t during this disaster.

When the earthquake hit, sensors automatically turned off the power to the nuclear reactors. The reactor relies on nuclear reactions to create steam that turns turbines and generates electricity. There are six boiling water reactors at Fukushima that contain pellets of uranium oxide surrounded by steel and concrete. They sit atop another containment system designed to capture excess steam in case of a malfunction.

These units were encased in another unit to prevent radioactive materials from escaping. In the event of a breakdown, the nuclear chain reaction would continue after the system shut down. Unstable isotopes produced as part of the reaction, accompanied by dropping water levels and failed cooling systems, would cause the fuel core to overheat and burst through its casing.

When the Quake Hit

In the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a series of tsunamis killed almost 19,000 people. The main cause was that after the initial earthquake caused seawater to rush toward Honshu’s coastline, backup units operated as expected. However, the tsunami made the seabed rise and displaced water surged toward Honshu’s coast.

The tsunami that hit the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan caused a number of problems. First, it took out the plant’s electrical system, which powered its cooling systems for radioactive materials. It also lost power to some of its control and monitoring systems. Thus, multiple reactors suffered earthquake damage as well as seawater damage and loss of power from the AC system. No one had anticipated this kind of situation before; no established procedures existed for such a scenario. Since nuclear engineers didn’t think about multiple catastrophes happening at once, they focused on single incidents called “design basis accidents” instead. This oversight proved crucial in this case because it allowed multiple issues to occur all at once due to an unforeseen event like a tsunami hitting the plant during an earthquake.

Nothing Was Normal

After the earthquake and tsunami, plant personnel had no way of monitoring water levels or communicating with each other. They used batteries from buses and cars to power gauges that monitor water levels and pressure.

The prime minister was meeting with his advisers, who had little knowledge of nuclear plants. The TEPCO staff were also meeting separately in the same building, but they could not communicate with the prime minister’s team. Several government agencies and TEPCO had to approve critical decisions such as whether to vent radioactive gases to prevent dangerous pressure buildups in containment chambers. This led to delays. The Japanese regulators notified the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Eventually, after hours went by without a word from authorities about what was happening at Fukushima Daiichi plant, the Prime Minister waited two more hours before declaring a nuclear emergency and telling people that no radiation leaks would occur – something that TEPCO already refuted shortly afterwards when radiation levels rose and authorities ordered people living within 2 miles of the plant to evacuate immediately while venting began 24 hours after the earthquake started at 3:35pm on March 11th 2011. Later experts said accumulated hydrogen gas caused an explosion which blew off part of Unit 1 reactor’s roof later on March 12th 2011 at 6:00am local time due to a buildup of hydrogen gas inside one of them causing this blast