Fukushima Daiichi ResponseThe Fukushima Daiichi disaster put the country of Japan in a very hard place. On March 11, 2011, the Japanese aggovernment declared a nuclear emergency. Naoto Kan, the Japanese Prime Minister, instructed those within a 20 kilometer zone of the power plant to leave immediately. Kan also firmly suggested that citizens between 20-30 kilometers stay inside.
Fourteen days later, those within the 30 kilometer radius were told to evacuate the area. The radiation leakage forced about eighty thousand Japanese citizens to relocate. Japanese officials were severely criticized for the lack of standards and oversight of the extreme disaster. |
1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_reaction_to_Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster#/media/File:Fukushima_accidents_overview_map.svg
2.http://elearningexamples.com/the-evacuation-zones-around-the-fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-plant/
3.http://blogs.reuters.com/isseykato/
4.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_reaction_to_Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster#/media/File:Towns_evacuated_around_Fukushima_on_April_11th,_2011.png
5.http://www.resilience.org/stories/2011-04-08/can-nuclear-power-be-part-solution
2.http://elearningexamples.com/the-evacuation-zones-around-the-fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-plant/
3.http://blogs.reuters.com/isseykato/
4.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_reaction_to_Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster#/media/File:Towns_evacuated_around_Fukushima_on_April_11th,_2011.png
5.http://www.resilience.org/stories/2011-04-08/can-nuclear-power-be-part-solution
EvacuationRight after the disaster, the government told just over eighteen hundred people to evacuate at 7:03PM. These people all lived within 2 kilometers from the plant. A little over two hours later, the radius was extended to 3 kilometers and over five thousand people were forced to be evacuated.
At 5AM the next morning, the radius of evacuation was extended to 10 kilometers and then 20 kilometers roughly 12 hours later. Originally, a 20 kilometer no-fly zone was placed around the reactors, but three days later a 30 kilometer no-fly zone was put into action. The United States began to encourage fellow Americans within a fifty mile radius of the plant to evacuate. One month after the meltdown, Fukushima Daiichi was considered a no-go zone, and arrests to be made if anyone broke the law. |
The CoolingShortly after these evacuations took place, seawater was used for emergency cooling, a process in which cool seawater is injected into the reactor’s core. This is used to cool the fuel rods in the reactor to prevent complete nuclear meltdown and eventually radioactive fallout.
When the Japanese began to cool the reactors with seawater, the masses knew there was a problem. The aforementioned emergency cooling needs to be done when the normal backup cooling system is nonfunctional. This practice is used as the last possible option because it ruins to reactor. The boron-laced saltwater is very corrosive, especially at high temperatures. The use of this corrosive solution led to the destruction of the reactors, roughly a 200 million dollar loss. Not only is the process economically costly, it takes a lot of time. Using a fire truck, it would take five to ten hours to fill the reactor core and an additional ten days to subsequently cool the reactor. |
Immediate Health ResponseTo help monitor the evacuees radiation levels, officials gave dosimeters to the evacuees. The Japanese officials also tried to decontaminate affected locations. Billions of yen were put toward the efforts, but the radioactive waste wasn't collected properly and disposed of incorrectly, leading to even greater problems.
To insure the safety of future Fukushima residents, the government quickly released a program to monitor children born of women affected in the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. The city of Namie also suggested offering free healthcare for all of its citizens. All citizens are also provided with health handbooks to monitor long term effects of the disaster. Even though not a lot of action was taken when screening citizens for physical affects, the monitoring of Fukushima's citizens can lead to information saving the lives of the majority of people affected by the disaster. |