Fukushima
Accident And How the world (except India
) Reacted To It
Well, not always fortune favours the brave,
but at times it also tests them very severely – is what can be inferred from
the big disaster which struck the land of hardworking people.
The ambience was tranquil and life
was peaceful in the north eastern coast of japan till when the nature decided
to demonstrate its wrath on march 2011 around 2:30pm, when land rattled and monstrous
waves lashed the coastline of Sendai, creating a havoc which not only
crippled people at that moment but also left an incurable stigma, not to be
forgotten anytime in the future.
Info
about the earthquake.
The earthquake took place off the
pacific coast of Tohuku with an intensity of 9(on Richter scale) , with the
epicentre at 70km east of oshika peninsula of Tohuku (373km from Tokyo)
,lasting around 6 minutes with subsequent aftershocks which were no lesser to
the actual quake. The reason for the earthquake was reported
as the outcome of the tectonic plate motion. This
earthquake occurred when the Pacific Plate is subducted under the plate beneath northern Honshu.
The Pacific plate, which moves at a rate of 8 to 9 cm (3.1 to 3.5 in) per
year, dipped under Honshu's underlying plate, building large amounts of elastic
energy. This motion pushed the upper plate down until the accumulated stress
caused a seismic slip-rupture event. The break caused the sea floor to rise by
several meters. A quake of this magnitude usually has a rupture length of at least 500 km and
generally requires a long, relatively straight fault surface. Because the plate
boundary and subduction zone in the area of the Honshu
rupture is not very straight, it is unusual for the magnitude of its earthquake
to exceed 8.5; the magnitude of this earthquake was a surprise to some
seismologists.
Effects
of the Earthquake
video
of the tsunami - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noq8FYvRqgs
· A report of National policy agency of japan confirmed 15884 deaths, 6147 injured and 2636
missing.
· 127290 buidings totally collapsed; 272788 half
collapsed and 747989 partially damaged.
· Huge damage to dams,ports, roads and railway lines
were also reported.
· Around 4.4 million households in northeastern
Japan were left without electricity and 1.5 million without water.
· An
estimated 230,000 automobiles and trucks were damaged or destroyed in the
disaster.
· Insured losses
from earthquake alone was estimated to be around US$14 - $34.6 billion dollars . Also bank of japan offered US$183
billion to normalise the market conditions.
The
world bank estimated economic cost was US$235 billion (which is around 1/5th of
indian GDP), making it the costliest natural disaster in the world
history.
· A
220,000-barrel (35,000 m3)-per-day oil refinery of Cosmo
Oil Company was set on fire by the quake at Ichihara, Chiba Prefecture, to the east of Tokyo. It was extinguished
after 10 days, injuring 6 people,
and destroying storage tanks.
· Most
prominently these led to huge tsunamis which had its effect every where
But these were just
teasers of the main film named ‘fukushima diachhi disaster, rated as the
largest nuclear incident in the world from Chernobyl in 1986.
The most interesting
reason for this mammoth disaster was not just because of tsunamis or
earthquakes but due to negligence by the ‘genius minds’ of the worlds.
Around 2 years before
the incident the WIKILEAKS cables
revealed about the warnings sent by the
international nuclear watchdog that there power plants were not equipped
enough to withstand powerful earthquakes. Despite this alarming warning from
the whistle blower the japs didn’t take it seriously, they underestimated mr. Julian asange & co for
which they had to pay very dearly in blood and money.
Facts of the
nuclear disaster
Following
a major earthquake, a 15-metre tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling of three
Fukushima Daiichi reactors, causing a nuclear accident. All three cores
largely melted in the first three days.The accident was rated 7 on the INES scale,
due to high radioactive releases over day 4 to day 6. Four reactors were collapsed
due to damage in the accident – causing a loss of 2719 MWe net.
The power
plant was substantiated with backup generator, but unfortunately they could
function during the time of disaster just because the switching station which had
access to these generators were inside a poorly maintained building which was
far away from the generator. If these switching station s had been inside the
reactor then fukushima wouldn’t have been in news today.
As the
national program to develop robots for the use of nuclear emergencies was
stopped in the midway thinking that they would not be helpful resulted in a
chaos, as there were none to send into the fukushima power plant when no human
intervention was possible. This resulted in requesting the big brother (the US)
of the world for some robots to send into the power plant to assess the
situation inside.
By
committing blunders like this the japs are giving all opportunity to criticise
that ‘robots should not be made for entertainment and make us lazy but to solve
the problem when there is really bad crises’.
Precise
explanation about the reason - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLId9kso2oE
Effects of fukushima accident:-
Though the radioactive leakage didn’t have any
instantaneous effect, it is acting like slow poison even today, having a
variety of health effect on the people.
· 37 people who were working in the plant where
physically injured and 2 people were reported to have injured severely.
· To reduce
the gas pressure in the vessels, the radioactive material was released into the
sea , which led to 20km exclusion zone around the power plant.
· As the
currents on the coastline were very strong, they carried the radioactive
materials far into the pacific ocean , which resulted in a great dispersion. It
is the most important and largest emission from a individual emission radioactivity into the sea ever witnessed.
· 1 day
after the incident radioactive releases first REACHED COMPREHENSIVE
NUCLEAR-TEST BAN TREATY ORGANISATION(CTBTO), which is around 200km away at
Takasaki. 3 days later radioactive
isotopes were spotted in eastern Russia and 2 days later in the west coast of
USA . In the next 15 days traces of radioactivity were detected in the entire
northern hemisphere. Within a month or two the entire globe was able to witness
the radioactivity increase.
· Japanese
government couldn’t control the spread of radiation into the supply chain.
· Fishing
was prohibited for few days.
· Lifetime
cancer was predicted to increase by 1%. People living in the most contaminated
region faced 70% increase in risk of developing thyroid cancer. 7% increase in
the risk of developing leukemia in male infants. 6% higher relative risk of
breast cancer in females exposed as infants. Risks in foetuses also increased.
But the most appalling thing was that the 1/3rd of the people involved in the rescue mission
were also subjected to a considerable increase in the cancer risk.
· In 2012 a
study confirmed that 36% of the children were found to have abnormal growth in
their thyroid gland. In 2013 the number got raised to 40%. The worst part with
this thyroid growth was that they will never cause any symptoms.
· 1/3rd of surveyed evacuees’ families said that they
live apart from their children. 50.1%
live away from other family members. 34.7% of the evacuees had to suffer a
salary cut of more than 50% of what it was prior to the incident. 36.6% of them
reported lack of sleep. 17.9% of the evacuees reported smoking or drinking more
than before evacuation.
· Also some
evacuees had to face some mental and physical problem due to lack of
information and from reloaction.
· Reports
confirmed the death of 1600, out of 300000 evacuees due to evacuation
conditions such as poor temporary housing and hospital closures.
Though
these were very sympathetic, heart breaking and unforgettable incident, the
people who lost their life have to be respected and thanked for sending a very
strong message around the globe, which shook every nation to take some
important measures in handling with the nuclear material.
Things
became extremely perilous, if a very advanced country couldn’t handle the
operation of a nuclear power plant, whole world started doubting whether the
entire idea of nuclear power plant itself was a wrong idea and many lost their
confidence in that idea.
HOW THE WORLD REACTED?
How the affected reacted?
Japan
reacted very swiftly by closing every nuclear power plant in their nation
except two within a year of this horrifying incident as they were left with no
other option other to learn from their mistakes and mishaps. According to the japan times –
“the disaster changed the national debate over energy policy
almost overnight. By shattering the government's long-pitched safety myth about
nuclear power, the crisis dramatically raised public awareness about energy use
and sparked strong anti-nuclear sentiment".
Polls conducted by Asahi Shimbun revealed that majority of
the people were supporting the closure of all the 54 nuclear power plants in
Japan.
Japan not
only closed a number of power plants but also scrapped its future ideas about
the expansions in nuclear projects.
30% of the
countries power generation capacity fell, which led them to rely too much on
liquid natural gas and coal. In a single stroke the japs became too much energy
conservative, very rigorous power reduction norms were imposed on major
companies. They also passed a bill to subsidize the electricity from renewable
source. The Japanese government planned to build a plot offshore floating wind
farm with six 2-megawatt turbines, of the fukushima coast. Sales of solar panels
In japan increased by 30.7%.
Other
measures which were undertaken by the government included construction of tall
walls around the power plants located in the tsunami prone areas. Nuclear power
plants aroun the world started using the Passive Autocatalytic Hydrogen
Recombiners (PARs), which do not require electricity to operate. Had this been
installed in the fukushima power plant before the incident took place, there
wouldn’t have been explosion inside the power plant.
How the business cos reacted?
Well, the horror coupled with lack of demand
for their product left the business cos to take some very tough decisions.
German engineering giants like Siemens announced a complete withdrawal from
nuclear industry and also shelved its idea of constructing a number of new
nuclear projects throughout Russia. And also gave positive signs to expand its
involvement in renewable energy.
How the regulatory agencies reacted?
As soon as
the incident took place intergovernmental agencies like INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC
ENERGY AGENCY, WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZER and the preparatory commission
for the COMPREHENSIVE NUCLEAR TEST BAN TREATY ORGANIZATION were setup on adhoc
basis and radiation detection equipment was deployed around the world. Some
scientists around the world dissented that IAEA didn’t learn its lesson from
the chernobyl disaster and insisted that the IAEA to come up with high nuclear safety standard.
IAEA’s one
of the statutory function is to establish safety standards to the project the
health,life and property in the use of nuclear power .When reports of the damaged nuclear power plants at Fukushima
emerged, many countries looked immediately to the IAEA for more information.
But its initial reports provided scant and at times contradictory information
from Japanese sources and it took a week for the IAEA to dispatch a team to
Japan to gather more facts on the ground. While
the IAEA has stated that it was hampered by lack of official information from
Japan. This seriously questioned the efficiency of the IAEA.
After the
incident, International energy agency halved its estimate of additional nuclear
capacity to be built by 2035.
How the financial markets reacted?
As soon as
the accident was reported, stock prices of many energy companies dependent on
the nuclear sources dropped drastically, on the other hand the stock prices of
renewable energy companies got increased tremendously ie.., rose by 13.7% in
the first three months of 2011.
Immediate response of Different countries in
helping Japan
Within a
week of the accident taken place various embassies of various countries including
UK, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Finland,
Kenya, Israel advised its national to leave Tokyo, citing a probable large
aftershocks and the risk of nuclear radiations. Many Embassies itself were
shifted to the southern parts of Japan. Potassium Iodide tablets were given as
precautionary measures by different embassies to its citizens living in Tokyo.
· Japanese
government sort the help of the France based company named Areva to provide
some technical assistance in removing the radioactive water from the nuclear
power plant.
· Korea sent
Boron for the production of boric acid to dampen fission reactions.
· Ukraine
sent some scientists who were involved in the aftermath of the chernobyl
nuclear aftermath. Those scientists
proposed liquid metal cooling with low –melting point and chemically neutral
metal(like tin) to cool the fuel rods even if they were molten or damaged.
· USA
inducted Operation Tomodachi to assist the Japanese government
in recovery.
Protests and Politics around the globe
· France –
Around 1000 people took part in the protest against nuclear power in Paris in
20th march. And 3800 people protested for the closure of Fessenheim
nuclear power plant on april 8th 2011. Opinion polls reported that
the majority of the citizen were against the nuclear power.
· Germany-
On the eve of the state elections in 2011 200,000 people took part in anti
nuclear protests held in the 4 large cities. As a result the green party saw an
all time best state result election result. Later Germany shut down 8 of its
reactor and promised to shut down the rest by 2022.
· Italy- In
the aftermath Fukushima accident thousands protested against the Italian
government which had the plans of opening 4 new atomic plants. The Italian
nuclear power referendum held on 13th june 2011 revealed that no
one was in support of the nuclear power,
which led to the cancellation of the nuclear power projects
· Spain – In
March 2011 hundreds hit the streets protesting for the closure of all the 6
nuclear power plants operated in the country.
· Sweden –
Post Fukushima accident surveys conveyed that 36% of respondents wanted to
phase out nuclear power, from 15% from the survey which was undertaken in 2009.
· Switzerland
– In May 2011, 20000 people gathered in the streets to protest against the
nuclear energy. As a result of which the swiss government drooped all its
future nuclear power programmes and also assured that the existing power plants
will not be replaced at the end of their life span.
· Taiwan – In
march 2011 around 2000 people went on protesting for immediate halt to the
construction of the 4th power plant and also opposed to plans to
extend the lifespan of three existing nuclear plants. Also another protest was
demonstrated in june 2011 insisting the government to undertake a re-evaluation
process of the nuclear power plants and to shut down those which does not fail
to pass the safety inspection.
· United
States – For the US, which already had
the taste of nuclear disaster (Three mile Island accident in 1979), the
Fukushima accident served as another eye opening chance and left them with a
very strong message. The growing acceptance of nuclear power in the US was
diminished to a great extent after the accident. In an opinion poll conducted
by news poll revealed that only 43% of
those polled were in support of building a new nuclear power plant. Many protests
took place demanding for the re-evaluation of the power plants as many were too
old. Also, the fukushima accident seem to have had some major effect on the US
energy policing. According to billionaire Warren Buffet, “United States was poised to move ahead with nuclear plans
here, but the events in Japan derailed that.” But all these incidents had its
effect on the people, the senators were no way ready to close any of their
nuclear power plants, they moreover publicly supported continued development of
new nuclear power facilities.
· Mexico – In the wake of the fukushima accident
Mexico shelved the construction of 10 nuclear plants.
· Belgium-
Belgium is considering to phasing out its nuclear plants before 2015.
· Kuwait-
Kuwait too scrapped its plan to build four nuclear power stations. Besides
there wre no space for country like Kuwait to save the waste .
· Russia –
Prime minister Putin ordered an investigation to asses the safety conditions of
all their nuclear power plants and also asked to review the countries ambitious
plans to develop nuclear power crises. Like US they were also not ready to
scrap any plans in regard to nuclear facilities.
· Venezuela
– The Venezuelan president announced to freeze all their ongoing nuclear power
projects, which included a contract with Russia.
Apart From
these other nations like Slovakia, Netherlands, United kingdom,
Pakistan,etc also commissioned for
re-evaluation of their existing power plants.
It is clearly visible that the big
nuclear super-powers are in no idea to quit their nuclear power expansion
programmes, as they are always fond of the word ‘Nuclear Power’. Neither the
developing countries like India and china are interested in giving up the idea
of nuclear energy as it is the means of clean, large and promising source of power,
so if they give up means, they are out of the race for quick development. Also
giving up the nuclear plans will ruin the countries relation with the super
powers who are supplying them the technology whose economy will be affected to
a great extent. It is only few developed countries like Germany and france are
willing to take some fruitful measures, seems they are the only set of people
who have learnt their lessons properly.
Conclusion
It is clear that most of the citizens in every
nation are against the nuclear energy, despite which the leaders of the nations
are in no plan to give up. This shows that most of the countries are not run on
popular interest of the people but for the vested interests of few.
It is a
high time that every country in the world, be it developed, developing or
underdeveloped country should learn from their history and rightly reassess
themselves rather holding on to some blind faith that nuclear energy is
innocuous. Technology should serve as an aid to humanity. Humanity should not
stoop to adjust with the technology, as the meaning of technology itself will
be destroyed. Every technology is built up on the basis of lessons learnt from
the past failures. But if the idea itself is wrong, whatever be the
advancement, failures would be catastrophic. According to me nuclear energy
itself is a wrong idea, there is no question of redressal. Here, in the case of
nuclear energy, we cannot afford to learn lessons from the past, as one such
lesson will have its effect over 2-3 generation, decreasing the life
expectancy, therefore should not be given a try. Rather it is wise to change
our minds to go with the variety of clean and renewable energy sources availabe,
as they are evergreen and there is
problem of waste, though they might cost high.
References
· http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2013/03/map-nuclear-meltdown-near-misses/4944/
by
Name -Suganthan.C
roll no-ME11B064
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