Fukushima Disaster 1.0 Introduction A major accident had occurred at Japan on March 11, 2011 whichis the Nuclear Power Station accident at Daiichi, Fukushima,turned the public’s sentiment from many state against nuclearenergy as the amount of radioactive material released due toaccident had caused a major loss to the nation. The Fukushimaaccident occurred due to an earthquake which was followed by a15 meter high tsunami that disabled the power supply for thecooling process of three Fukushima Daiichi reactors. Theearthquake had damaged six external power supply sources tothe reactors and the emergency diesel generator located at thebasement of the turbine buildings started to operate and thecooling of the reactors was maintained. Then, about 45 minuteslater the power plant was hit by a tsunami and damaged theemergency diesel generator and also the sea water pumps whichwere located in the basement of the turbine buildings. Thus, astation blackout occurred and isolated the reactors from theirheat sink. Due to such incidents, the cooling process was notoperating normally and in order to reduce the pressure in thereactor container one of the pressure valve was manuallyopened. Eventually, a hydrogen explosion occurred and damagedall the facilities, releasing a large amount of radioactivematerial into the environment.

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Figure 1.0 (a): Layout of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear PowerPlant

Source: The National Diet of Japan

Figure 1.0 (b): Cross Section of the Plant Showing theInundation Level

Source: The National Diet of Japan

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2.0 Management and Operation

2.1 Management and its Structures

Figure 2.1: The Management Structure of TEPCO

The figure above shows the management structure of TEPCO. Thepresident of TEPCO had resigned his job and dissappearedhimself after the acciddent as he did not want to take inresponse upon the accident.

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2.2 Objectives of the Management

The objective of TEPCO is to provide easy to understandinformation on the status of electricity demand and our actualsupply capacity.

3.0 Industrial Processes

The MARK 1 Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) was used in theFukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The boiling waterreactor is a type of light water nuclear reactor whichoperates due the core reactor which produces heat continuouslyfrom the decaying radioactive substance and processing theliquid coolant (nuclear energy) into steam. Then, this steamis flowed into the turbine. Followed by the turbine beingdrive by the steam and electricity is generated by theturbine. (Boiling Water Reactor Systems)

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Figure 3.0 (a): The Process of Water Being Converted IntoSteam and Producing Electricity Supply to the Power Plant

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Figure 3.0 (b): Boiling Water Reactor That Was Used In theNuclear Power Plant

Source: Boiling Water Reactors System

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4.0 Causes of Accident

4.1 Human Factors

Human is one of the factors that caused the Fukushima DaiichiNuclear Power Plant accident. The collusion between TEPCO andthe government and regulators had caused a betrayal to thenation’s right of safety towards nuclear. The organisationinvolved in the safety measures of the nuclear power planthave failed to conduct the proper investigations upon theplant. In addition, TEPCO also did not prepare their workersto face a severe accident at their power plant. Thus, theworkers made a wrong decision during the accident. They couldhave reduced the harshness of the accident if they had madethe right decision. (The National Diet of Japan, 2012)

4.2 Design and Process Factors

The second factor of the accident is due to the design andprocess of the power plant. This could be clearly stated asthe power plant that they have built was not capable towithstand the earthquake and tsunami. The organisations suchas Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) which is the operatorof the plant, the regulatory such as Nuclear Safety Agency(NSA) and Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) and also includingthe government body which promotes the nuclear power industrywhich is the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI),have failed to build the power plant with the safety featuresthat they required. In addition, the power supply system thatthey have built was not placed in a proper place as the powersupply system was damaged by the earthquake and the dieselgenerator that they had was ruined by the tsunami as theswitch room for the diesel generator was placed according totheir miscalculation of the height of tsunami that mightattack their power plant. Thus, they built the switch roomabove the ground expecting that the tsunami wave will not hit

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their switch room but unfortunately the height of the tsunamithat attacked their power plant was higher than what they haveexpected. Other than that, the seawall that they have built toprotect the power plant from tsunami was also short as theymiscalculated the height of tsunami that might attack thepower plant. They built the seawall with a height of 5.7 metrehigh but unfortunately the height of tsunami that had landedwas 15 metre high and damaged the seawall and also their powersupply system. (The National Diet of Japan, 2012)

4.3 Root Factors

The root factor of this is accident is because the safetypolicies of the power plant was not defined and explainedclearly by the personnel to the workers. Other than that, theresponsibility of the management to provide the necessarysafety training to the workers during normal workingsituations and emergency working situations were failed to begiven. In addition, the worker who is in charge of eachmachine had failed to maintain the operation and the safety ofthe machine. They did not take in action upon the defectivemachines by warning their superior officer upon the failures.

5.0 Consequences of the Effects of the Accident

5.1 Health

The Fukushima accident had caused an effect to the health ofthe surrounding people by increasing the percentage of risk ofcancer. (World Nuclear News, 2012)

5.2 Environment and Ecology

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The radioactive substance that was released by the accidenthad caused air pollution for about 25 kilometres at first andincreased to 300 kilometres circumference from the powerplant. This is the main reason of why the people who werestaying in the circumference were asked to evacuate theirplace. This radioactive substance had also contaminated thesoil for about 25 – 45 kilometres. It had caused the farmersto lose their income. The seawater was also contaminated bythe radiation due to the usage of seawater and the radioactivesubstance was released into the sea through this process.According to Thomas Hinton from The French Radio EcologistTeam (2011), about 50 radioisotopes have been released withiodine – 131 and caesium – 137. At the end of March, theconcentrations of caesium – 137, which has a half life of 30years had reached 47000 becquerel per litre in sea water, and72900 becquerels per kilogram in soils. A becquerel is definedas one radioactive decay per second. Besides that, accordingto a research upon a common lycaenid butterfly in Japan whichis known as pale grass blue Zizeeria maha (pale grass bluebutterflies) around Fukushima region, it shows that thespecies had been damaged physiologically and genetically dueto the radionuclides which was released from the meltdown ofthe power plant. These butterflies had mutations andabnormalities in their physical appearances. In fact, some ofthe butterflies were also found death before reaching theiradulthood. (Nature, 2012)

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Figure 5.2: The Radiation Circumference of the RadioactiveSubstance

Source: Global Research

5.3 Damages Costs/Health Costs/ Environmental Costs/ Compensation Costs

5.3.1 Damage Costs

The damages due to the accident had caused 11 trillion Yenwhich is about $137 billion due to the damages of the reactorsand the infrastructures.

5.3.2 Health Costs

The accident had costs lives as the hospital was unable toadmit the number of people who were in need of emergencymedical care as they were affected by the radiation that wasreleased by the plant.

5.3.3 Environment Costs

The food supplies such as fish and vegetables from thecontaminated area were unsellable due to the contamination ofthe soil and seawater.

5.3.4 Compensation Costs

A compensation amount of 10.5 million Yen had been given tothe victims that were affected by the accident that occurredat the plant.

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6.0 Improvement and Prevention6.1 Design and ProcessThe accident could have been prevented if the emergency dieselgenerators were stored at a higher ground on the plant site,this would have prevented the emergency diesel generators frombeing ruined by tsunami. On top of that, watertight connectionshould have been used between the emergency diesel generatorand the power plant, to prevent it from being disrupted bytsunami. A higher seawall neglecting the calculation of theheight of tsunami that might land on the power plant shouldhave been built to prevent tsunami from hitting the powerplant as disasters caused by natural phenomena areunpredictable.

6.2 Human Resources The safety organisations should give appropriate safetytraining on how to respond during severe to the workers sothat they know how to react when a severe accident such asearthquake and tsunami hits the power plant. Other than that,the workers themselves must maintain the status of the machinewhich has been handed to them to be handled. They must warn

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their superior officers upon any defect that is caused by themachines they are operating.

6.3 Safety and HealthThe organisations which are involved in the safety measures ofthe power plant must inspect the emergency equipment that hasbeen installed in the power plant appropriately and maintainthe status of the operating devices to operate without anydefects. This would help the power plant to overcome theblackout problem that they faced as the emergency equipmentwould not have been ruined by the tsunami.

7.0 ConclusionThe accident at the nuclear power station had occurred due tothe external power supply to the sources which were damaged bythe earthquake and the emergency diesel generators andseawater pumps which were ruined by the tsunami. This hadcaused the reactors to be isolated from their heat sinkcausing a station blackout. Thus, the cooling process of thereactors did not operate normally causing one of the pressurevalves to be opened manually in order to reduce the pressurein the reactor which caused a hydrogen explosion and damaged

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all the facilities. A large amount of radioactive materialswere released into the environment due to the explosion. As aneffect of the accident, the percentage of risk of cancer hadincreased. Other than that, it also had brought the aquaticlives to death due to the contamination of the seawater nearbythe power plant. Besides that, it had also led to unnecessarycosts which are spent to clean up and repair the damages thathad occurred at the power plant. By fact, this accident couldhave been prevented if the organisations involved had playedtheir role in a proper manner. They should have planned aproper and safer nuclear power plant structure with theability of the plant to overcome power failure without beingdisrupted by tsunami, isolation of heat sink and also the mostimportant cause of the accident which is the protectionagainst disasters caused by natural phenomena such asearthquake and tsunami. They should have built a higherseawall neglecting the calculation of the height of tsunamithat might land on their power plant. Other than that,appropriate safety training on how to respond during severeaccidents should have been given to workers and an inspectionupon the plant should have been carried out to make sure thatthe plant is safe to operate.

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8.0 List of References1) Tatsuo Hatta, 2012, The Official Report of The Fukushima Nuclear AccidentIndependent Investigation Commission, Published by The National Diet of Japan

2) BBC Asia News (2012), Fukushima Report, [Online]. URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18718486 [Accessed date: 4th April 2013]

3) World Nuclear Association (2013), Fukushima Accident, [Online].URL:http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Safety-and-Security/Safety-of-Plants/Fukushima-Accident-2011/#.UW2dhbVTBFB [Accessed date: 4th April 2013]

4) World Nuclear News (2012), The Health Effects of Fukushima, [Online]. URL:http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_The_health_effects_of_Fukushima_2808121.html [Accessed date: 2nd April 2013]

5) National Center for Biotechnology Information (2011), Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident, [Online]. URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3246178/# [Accessed date: 3rd April 2013]

6) James M. Acton & Mark Hibbs, (2012), Why Fukushima Was Preventable, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Publications

7) The Guardian (2012), Fukushima Disaster Could Have Been Avoided, Nuclear Plant Operator Admits, [Online]. URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/oct/15/fukushima-

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disaster-avoided-nuclear- plant [Accessed date: 4th April 2013]

8) Nature (2012), The Biological Impacts Of The Fukushima Nuclear Accident On The Pale Grass Blue Butterfly, [Online]. URL: http://www.nature.com/srep/2012/120809/srep00570/full/srep00570.html [Accessed date: 1st April 2013]

9) Nature (2011), Wildlife Threatened By Fukushima Radiation, [Online]. URL: http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110527/full/news.2011.326.html

[Accessed date: 2nd April 2013]

10) Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2012), Fukushima: A Nuclear War withoutA War: The Unspoken Crisis of Worldwide Nuclear Radiation, [Online]. URL: http://www.globalresearch.ca/fukushima-a-nuclear-war-without-a-war-the-unspoken-crisis-of-worldwide-nuclear-radiation/28870 [Accessed date: 4th April 2013]

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